What is the greatest challenge that runners face? I ponder this thought, as I lie in the bath looking at my big toe, which no longer has a nail due to my latest cycle of marathon training. I have been for my final long run a week before the London Marathon 2019, though at eleven miles it doesn't feel that long. I return my thoughts to the original question. At first I turn to the addiction to constantly obtain personal bests (PBs)from each race one takes part in, however I can't in all honesty say that I think this is the hardest obstacle a runner faces. We all have different versions of PBs that we are looking to achieve in our running; be that distance, fundraising, time or simply just a running streak. So what about avoiding injuries? Yes that was a big part of why we eat healthily, stretch, foam-roll, sleep and have sports massages; however it is something that in one way or another all runners (in fact people playing any sport) accept as part of the taking part in that particular pursuit. So in my opinion it wasn't injury either. I thought about what I knew about running now, as compared to when I started running for the Brighton Marathon in 2014. There are so many things that I wouldn't do now, that I did back then, and I wonder if learning more about how I train is a perennial problem that all runners face. I dispel that thought, as I think anything that if you are pursuing any sort of passion you will always be learning and becoming aware of your limitations.
No I decided that the biggest quest a runner faces is when to push on or when to hold back? Ultimately about how we as runners find our balance, and by that I don't mean being balanced all the time; but knowing when we have gone too deep into our training. I finally landed upon this answer when I was watching the Netflix documentary Resurface. It is a documentary about a surf instructor who uses his talents to help American Afghanistan and Iraq veterans recover from their physical and mental injuries by learning how to surf. The strength of this short film lies in its understatement, there are no dramatic moments or music pulling your heartstrings; just these ordinary men describing how the war affected them. Whilst watching the film I was struck by a comment one of the veterans said about what he learnt as he progressed in his surfing ability. The veteran stated how you have to constantly respect the ocean, you can be surfing on the edge of that wave, but if you aren't aware of everything you are doing you can fall into the ocean and it chew you up and spit you out. He goes on to say how ultimately you come to realise that the ocean is bigger than you and it will always be there, no matter what you do. Whilst I wouldn't directly compare marathon running and training to learning how to surf. It did strike me how we are always trying to find that 'edge' ,where we are looking to consistently improve our performances whilst avoiding injuries. In that way I think running and surfing are similar in that both sports are trying to find the ever elusive spot of perfect balance. It could also be said that their fates are similar as well. The surfer either successfully rides out of the wave or is subsumed within this huge natural event; the runner successfully completes their race to their expectations or falls short (either during the race or through not being able to train properly for it).
