~a personal story~
I am set to run my first half-marathon in 2 days. I'm a smidge intimidated at the thought of joining the crowd of 'real' runners and full marathoners, but at the same time I feel confident about completing the race. I WILL finish. And in two months when I travel to visit a friend and complete my second half-marathon, I will finish again. I have zero doubt about my ability to complete these 2 races. Somewhere along my journey to be a more effective coach and a stronger runner, there has been unexpected crossover and I have become better at both.
I often laughingly say that being a business & executive coach is teaching others "Jedi mind tricks" which, by the way, help them far beyond the scope of business. Through frequent discussions with my clients about how to be better human beings, while they see me as a source of information, motivation, accountability, and inspiration, I am gratefully and consistently inspired and motivated too. So it's no surprise that my coaching profession has enhanced my ability to set and achieve personal goals.
Running has been one of those challenges that has plagued me since childhood. I recall being embarrassed every year in grade school, often the second-to-last kid to finish the one mile portion of our annual fitness assessment. I wasn't fat or out of shape or incapable of completing the running portion, I just hated it. I was more academic than athletic, to be sure. Well, actually that's not fully accurate. I won ribbons in younger grades for my sprinting speed, performed at least average in extracurricular gymnastics, was in many dance groups throughout middle school years, and in high school I was on the drill team/pom squad -all of which should have countered my self image of "utterly non-athletic".
About 6 years ago, I joined a fitness boot camp with a friend & coworker and the first time they led us outside for a mile+ run, I was whining and bitching like an embarrassing wreck. I barely survived it. I had been weight-training and doing lots of other cardio activities so was in good physical condition. But running was a different animal and it became my nemesis. When I became a coach, I decided to tackle it. I used several of my mind tricks to try to overcome the physical pain of running and finally I used a DVD/Audio product to re-program my self-image. I came up with mantras to use while running, i.e. short phrases I could silently repeat in time with my breathing cadence. This helped. I ran more with my friend over lunch breaks in hilly downtown and we had to stop so many times for the dreaded "side stitch" cramp, but I kept going and we did a fair number of runs together.
I sounded like a charging rhino, stomping loudly, breathing loudly through nasal allergy symptoms, and felt about as graceful and pretty as all this sounds. But my dear friend continued to encourage me and I signed up for more & more 5K and 10K races, run/walking them and slowly increasing my run-walk ratio. I'll never forget the triumphant feelings that came with certain milestones. Yet, despite my successes and even inspiring and motivating others to run, I still really didn't see myself as a runner. More of a jogger, a struggling jogger who wanted to be a runner.
The irony wasn't lost on me. It did occur to me several times over these past few years that this strongly paralleled the many challenges my clients were facing and if I wanted to change my results, then I was going to have to change my thinking and set a positive expectation. Envision success.
This summer, another friend suggested I join a running club and train for a 1/2 marathon. I found myself spewing every excuse I could muster over our lunch, then got in the car, realized what had just happened and let things simmer for a couple days. I had set some running goals for the year, which was half over...so asked myself what was I going to do about it? I went to the information meeting the following week, promising myself that I could still back out after getting started but that I needed to try it. I thought the main hurdle was a problem with IT band & sciatic nerve that finally has me working with a small army of professionals to correct it. I was worried that running would aggravate it and lengthen the healing process. I realized that it would, but I could still do it smartly -- and that wasn't the real hurdle. It was my mental state about running. After several weeks of following the 3-runs-weekly training plan, increasing mileage every other week, I had a shift.
Suddenly, I didn't hate running, it was actually getting easier, and I actually liked being in a running club. WHOA. Finally, I had started seeing myself as a runner and the benefits came naturally. These past 2 long runs were difficult at 9 and 10 miles, but unlike in the past when I questioned whether I could do it, I just got out there and did it. I ran through the pain, and in rain storms, and I actually embraced these challenges because I knew that it would make me more confident on race day. I realized that moving forward in steps had made me a runner. In other words having a plan, maintaining the weekly discipline to execute on the plan, and being accountable by showing up weekly for the Sat 7am running club runs was exactly what I needed to get it done and change my self-image.
I realized that my friend had provided me the same general structure and process to I had applied to myself and my clients hundreds of times, but with running I didn't make the connection until 3/4 through my race-training experience. Ah-ha and yippee!
My latest catch-phrase is "progress...not perfection." My goal is to finish, but I've already won in so many ways. I'll save the real celebration until after Sunday's race. But now instead of dreading it and doing it just to check it off my list, I look forward to the actual experience.
My running journey thus far has strengthened me mentally (and physically), and acknowledging the contributing factors helps me be better at everything in business and in life, including being a coach who has greater empathy and compassion for her clients (and herself) in the midst of changing results.
Later note: I did it! I am now gearing up for the next one. Woo-Hoo!