A certain someone (you'll know who you are..) bravely took up the task of becoming my "trainer and personal motivator" a few months ago. It's been working pretty well so far, until yesterday that is!
Still with training for my first 21.1km race in mid-November as my goal and with having done a longish run on Saturday already, I woke up on Sunday superbly NOT-lus to run again!...
My trainer and I, had all good intentions of hitting the tar at the crack of dawn, so we could get back in time to watch the Bokke match! But sunrise came and went and no tar-hitting was done! A subsequent deal was brokered to move the run till sunset...
As 6pm approached I tried to think of every single reason under the sun NOT to run... "but it's Sunday", "I had a glass of wine earlier", "but it's Sunday", "I am sick", "I am tired," oh and did I mention the "but it's Sunday" one?... Having none of it, my patient trainer dragged me out the house literally kicking and screaming!
I blamed him for ruining my Sunday and splurted out other selfish, child-like, blaming sentences through my heavy breathing... And then, quite suddenly at around 2km, my trainer stopped and said "Imogen, stop if you want to stop. I don't care!"... I was horrified, he was supposed to be my rock, my positive influence and now he was saying this! How could he give me that as an alternative, I didn't even think "stop" was part of his vocabulary? How could he not care?
He could see the utter devastation in my face... He kindly carried on, "but please believe me when I tell you, that you are nearly at the top of the most awesome mountain of your life.. the running mountain, and when you get to the top of it, it will be the most beautiful feeling you will ever experience!"
Intrigued I asked him to explain, it was a long explanation and one that took many twists and turns to tell... And for once, I listened without speaking, as we physically twisted and turned on our route... He related getting running fit to climbing a mountain, it's a sure-fire, son-of-a-bitch of a struggle on the way up! You want to give up, you question your intentions at every step, you stop, you start... But if you could just persevere, get to the top of that mountain, get to that point of being running fit, of being a true runner, then the sight is the most exquisite.. The feeling is the most awesome and the rewards, most immeasurable.... And after that, the descent, the road after that, is easy!
And so, dear reader, after that story was finished, my trainer and I didn't speak much... Anything I had to say seemed trivial after that... But I thought long and hard about what he had said, and I decided to believe him. I decided to choose to get up at a time when many others are still sleeping, to choose to run when I most certainly don't friggin feel like it, to choose to pack my running shoes wherever I go - all in order to one day get to the top of my mountain and see my most beautiful sight ever! Maybe, just maybe
