The most important choice of a marathon runner

The most important idea marathon runners needs to imbibe deep in their consciousness is that they have a choice. For all the 42.195 kms of the race, through every step of the way, each time their feet pound the pavement, they are making a choice in their minds. Often subconsciously.

The choice to think if they are getting tired or not.

Fear, anger, sadness, euphoria – those are different form of emotions in which feelings are expressed. We always have a choice which channel we choose to express feelings by. Broadly, channels to express emotions can be classified into two – one is an intense longing for something with a sense of righteous indignation and is targeted outward; the other is evasive, self deprecating, and targeted inward.

“If I could just put it in all I spit,Instead I always try to swallow it.”

It is possible to kid yourself into thinking that you are physically feeling better than you really are. Pain is just an electrical signal sent by your muscles to the brain. It is not the pain in the aching parts of your body which hurts you, it is the message which is relayed to the brain signalling the pain. With stubborn denial, this pain can be pushed back. Yes, it won’t let you run a ultra in a day without pain, but it’ll take you further than you previously thought.

Picture a fork in a road. A really tiny fork. So tiny that left and right are almost merged. It doesn’t seem to matter much which fork you take, both seem to go straight with tiny deviations and both are equally easy to take. But pretty soon both paths deviate so far off from each other, you hardly realize how you ended up so far off track. Looking back, it seemed like an inconsequential decision, choosing between left and right, but each path takes you so far away from the other down the line that it boggles the mind how easy the choice was at the fork.

With every step on the road, there is a part of you taking stock of your body, assessing its condition. There are only two choices you can make – relent and accept your fatigue or shake and shrug it off and keep moving on the adrenaline. Seems like an innocent choice of thought, but a few kilometers after it is made, your thought process can lead you down very different paths.

The first time fatigue, weariness or discomfort of any kind kicks in, you need to throttle its throat. Be aggressive. Teeth bared. Eyes burning. Adrenaline pumping. Recall to mind every single memory which gets you riled up. Every mile you ran in preparation for the race. Mentally calculate the miles you’ve run in practice and stack it besides the measly 42.195 kms. Keep attacking and shooting down any possible signal of pain. Every time you yield a little towards acknowledging the pain, it allows the pain to set a foundation and before you know, it its grown and slowly slowing you down. Recognizing you are in pain sets up a vicious circle where its recognition gives it relevance.

Pain can be made irrelevant by choice. And you can feed off it by making it fuel your adrenaline. And it all starts with an innocuous choice of whether to think you are in pain or not. Don’t even dignify pain with acknowledgement.

There’s plenty of time to heal at the finish line, until then pain is just a sign that you are getting stronger.