Thursday 19 January 2012

Run your own Race

“I've run my race. You run yours.” 220px-Secretariatposter

This is what Penny Chenery said to her racehorse Secretariat on the eve of his biggest race. This is what I was thinking on my morning Time Trial today.

Ian and I set out to run, early morning as usual. We call it Time Trial Wednesday but I don’t always race the TT, it just depends on what my weekend has been like or is going to include. Today, I was happy to just run my 8km but Ian had other intentions and as soon as we were out our gate, he was off.  I was sort-of talking to him so I kept up long enough to finish my sentence and then I backed off.

I reminded myself that I take a while to warm up when I am running and if I start out too fast I am tired halfway thru’, I don’t enjoy the run and I don’t finish well. I was going to exercise patience and let Ian go ahead. This is when I reminded myself to run my own race, this is about me and how I run.

When I turned the corner and Ian was so far ahead of me he was around the next corner already, I really had to dig deep to “run my own race” and not try to catch up to him.  And again, when I got to the hill and saw he had crested already, I had to remember that this is about me and I am running fine for me, today.

I also started thinking that “Run your own Race” isn’t a life lesson that I have to learn, it is an experience we have throughout our lives.  I have had this experience before, many times and sometimes I have chosen to go with my race and other times I have run another’s race.  It is neither good nor bad and it always offers a reward. It also doesn’t apply to only literally running.

There is a reward in both outcomes, that’s what makes it an experience rather than a lesson. If you choose to “Run your own Race”, consciously and with awareness, the reward could be one of confidence and self-assuredness. If you choose to run with another, you can be rewarded with the knowledge of what works for you or doesn’t, what feels right for you or doesn’t and who you are or aren’t. Both are valuable rewards and offer us the opportunity to create ourselves as more of who we want to be.

I finished my TT 2 minutes behind Ian. He set a new course record of <45 minutes and I don’t see myself breaking that record anytime soon. I was satisfied with my ‘reward’  of acknowledging what works for me and following thru’ with that. 

What have you been rewarded with in “Running your own Race”?

1 comment:

Karien P. said...

Loved that movie!

My family is quite competitive when it comes to sports and always compare times, splits, age group placings, etc, while I, on the other hand, mostly participate for completely different reasons. At first I really allowed this to steal some of the joy I found in participating ("Did you place in your age group? No? Ag, shame!"), but these days I really try to focus on "running my own race" and getting from it what I want and need, not what anyone else thinks I should get from it. A work in progress!