Everything I Learned in Life, I Learned as a Runner

Part two in a series: These days, I realize that (almost) everything I learned in life, I learned from being a runner. So, I decided that over the course of the next week, I'd share a few lessons learned along the way....


Brace for the elements

Whether planning your outfit for race day, or planning for life, you have to know what to expect. You wouldn’t set out for a long run without a jacket when it’s pelting rain outside, so why would you meander through life this way?

Get a plan. Get the forecast. Get the 4-1-1 on things. When setting out for a race, I usually study the course a few days or a few weeks before. Sometimes right after I sign up. It’s helpful to know what to expect on race day. It helps with your training. After all, if you don’t know there are four massive hills during your Marathon, how will you know you need to do hill work during your training? It helps you determine how you will pace yourself, to know when to expect massive hills, exposure to the elements, and so forth. The same is true of life. It’s the old adage, how do you know you will get to your end goal if you don't know the path you'll take to get there? Plan it out.


Find a Buddy

As in running, in life it is equally important to find a buddy. Someone who enjoys the sport. Or, someone who will at least go along with you, even if it's just to humour you. I have often boasted that running is the one thing in my life that isn’t a “team sport” – it’s the one thing I can do by myself, to get in a little “me” time, away from the noise of the world. But the truth is, I have spent many a race by myself, and I have to tell you, staying in hotels by myself is something that I am completely over. O-v-e-r.  It is lonely. And isn’t running, at the end of the day, about belonging to a community, even if only a community of runners you may not know? I am thankful for the good girlfriends I've made in the running community and the mates who willingly travel along with me, just because they know it makes me happy.


Finish Strong

In life, as in running, it’s important to finish strong. We all fall down from time to time. But the important thing is that we dust ourselves off and continue toward the finish line.

In my last Marathon, a knee injury nearly kept me from finishing the race. But I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the people who had contributed to the charity I was running for, and I couldn’t let them down. I knew I had to finish. And you know what, it's a funny thing: success breeds more success. As I got closer to the Finish Line, I got stronger. Instead of limping across the finish line like the wounded animal I actually felt like, I finished as respectably as I could.

And thank God for that. Little did I know that the Marine Corps Marathon had hired a webcam company to provide Live streaming coverage of runners crossing the Finish Line, and my friends saw me online. Proof that you never know who's watching you. Just one more reason to finish strong.