What a LOSER! A LOSER that I will take many lessons from moving forward!
You’ve probably clicked through and got this far, however this is not going to be a Blog post calling someone out.
It’s not a rant about another recruiter, a candidate, a client or some random person on the street.
L.O.S.E.R stands for the Last One Standing Endurance Race - This Backyard Ultra event was held at Maribyrnong Valley Park on February 5th at 7pm and both Rory de Goede from our VIC office & I had the privilege (not sure if I’d call an Ultra Marathon that!) of competing with a field of approx. 60 competitors.
The premise of the event is simple. Running just under 7kms every hour, on the hour, until you either don’t make the cut-off or quit. Every hour, each competitor is equal first until they are not and then they are last. Until there is one left.
And what a LOSER it was!
This was my first ultra event >50kms and was a real test to see where I was at physically, mentally and emotionally.
So what lessons did I learn along the way?
Not Everything Is An External Competition
The thing I loved most about this event is that it brought together approx. 60 competitors at all different levels. It wasn’t about ‘winning’ as such, it was about supporting each other to achieve your own personal best.
For some people that was completing 20, 30kms (the first 2 competitors to finish stopped here) for others it was a marathon, for some the goal was making it to the morning, (approx. 70km-80kms) for others it was 100kms and for the elite it was running in excess of 240kms and 36 hours!
It was an event that levelled the playing field by starting everyone together each lap and each person had a different strategy to achieve their goal – some ran faster, others at a slower pace, each with their own personal goal in mind.
It cultivated a real team atmosphere with every competitor supporting those around him/her to do just 1 more km, 1 more lap and to keep pushing.
There were multiple occasions through the early hours of Saturday morning where I would find myself running with a complete stranger, each of us pushing each other to get to the end.
You Are Capable Of So Much More Than You Think Coming into this event my running training had taking a dip in December and January – in fact it was 50% less than the previous months. My routine had swung in favour of more weights and less cardio – a reflection of my goals at the time. We decided to take part in this event in early January given us approx. 4 weeks to prepare and be ready. I hadn’t done more than 30kms in one training run and 2 weeks out had a disastrous run in the heat only managing 23kms before ending up walking due to a mixture of factors – hills, heat, fluids/food. All things to learn from but got in my head from an expectations point of view.
In saying that I proved on the night that you are capable of so much more than you would expect, you can push your body and mind to places it doesn’t want to go if you will it so. Sure the voice in your head can scream at you to give up but like Goggins says sometimes you just have go to the Cookie Jar and Take Some Souls on the way to a PB.
I could have easily stopped at 50kms (my first goals) but at this stage I wasn’t even close to my actual capability on the night.
Where else in life do you stop when you feel pain or it gets a little hard? How far away is this from what you are truly capable of? All great things to evaluate.
It’s Your Story To Write
In the days leading up to the event, Rory and I’s potential performance was debated by the team. Questions such as ‘who would win’? (not knowing it was all about us supporting each other towards our own goals) What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Here were some of the comments in no particular order:
Matt is older
Matt is more broken and has way more injuries than Rory!
Matt is more crazy from a mental perspective. His advantage is this and the fact that he has done distance events in the past.
Matt’s body will break and he will not stop
Matt doesn’t have a runners build, carrying more weight
Rory is likely to stop if injured
Rory is built more like a runner / is a better runner / is more fit
Don’t get me wrong – all of the above are fair statements to a degree. The little voice in my head would have been saying the above and a hell of a lot more!
The people closest to you can voice opinions and they may fuel the fire or hold you back if you let their opinions or view cloud your own judgement. You need to remember that your identity is yours (and not someone else’s opinion) and the story is yours to write!
I could have bought into the narrative above, that would have been easy. But it’s much more exciting to write your own story and forge your own path.
The run wasn’t about a competition so I’m not going to talk about ‘who won’ as we both won but what we did find out is that we both performed at a higher level as a team, Rory’s body did break, I’m pretty sure every downhill after 60kms was close to agony for him but he didn’t quit and we both found new limits!
It’s All A Mental Game
Everything you do really is a mental game. You need to work on your mindset, mental strength, (& resilience) and your ability to be disciplined and push through obstacles. Like any muscle you need to work out your mind like you do your body.
This is without a doubt a key to success and what separates the elite performers in any field.
Where have you pushed yourself mentally in the last 12 months? Really think about that.
People In Your Corner Make A Huge Difference
Having the right people in your corner in anything you do in work or life can make all the difference. For this event we were supported by my Dad. He was there every lap for the 12 hours ensuring we had whatever we needed at our disposal – be that food, drinks, headtorches, clothing etc. But beyond that he was across each and every split of the event for Rory and I, would talk to us about timing, how our bodies were holding up and provide words of encouragement and tips.
On top of this as my Dad he obviously knew the buttons to press to keep me going and make sure I pushed towards my goals. I wouldn’t have made it anywhere near where I did without his invaluable support.
As mentioned, I also pulled Rory in from the team to complete this crazy event. Having a friend to complete the journey made a world of difference. We were able to push one another towards just one more lap, 1 more km or up the next hill.
The people that are in your corner, truly in your corner make all the difference!
Find People On The Same Mission As You
This is such a cliché saying. And a cliché photo below.
However, it is profoundly true. When you are surrounded by people on the same mission as you I believe the following happens:
You get a buzz and energy from those around you who are all driving towards the same outcome
You feel supported and can achieve more
You pain becomes less and your reward feels greater
You find inspiration from those around you
You are with like minded people
There Is Strength In Vulnerability
I have said this before in previous blogs but there is such strength in vulnerability and transparency with others. There were many times on the run when I was hurting (really hurting! Particularly after 60kms) and people would run alongside me and say something along the lines of “how you going?” On occasions where I was in the pain cave I was very open and said I am hurting like hell and on every occasion I found a new friend/comrade to run with for a couple of km’s supporting each other to finish.
This got me thinking…..how many times in life have we missed an opportunity to be supported, build a new relationship or start a new venture by not being open with our responses, shying away from being vulnerable or not having a ‘real’ conversation. Sure it’s easy to just give a generic response. I could have easily said ‘I’m good or I’m fine’ but the journey would have been so much harder!
So where did I finish up?
I had 3 goals going into this event.
Make it to 50kms – I would have been disappointed if I didn’t achieve this or something would have had to have gone wrong. (ie injury etc) I felt like I had done enough preparation to get here.
Make it to the morning – approx. 73kms-80kms. From those I met on the course who completed the first year they all thought this would be a huge challenge. It was also almost twice as far as I had ever run in my life before.
My stretch goal – if I could make it to the morning to attempt to push to 100kms.
I’m proud to say that I completed 2 of the 3 goals achieving 80kms in the event – well and truly a personal best and even though my last 2 splits (14kms) were strong I simply didn’t have the legs to make it to goal 3……this year! What a way to find out more about myself and what I am capable of achieving in running but more importantly life!
Last but not least, congratulations Rory on smashing your personal best by more than double, pushing through the night, the mental and physical boundaries and finding out what it’s like to jump in an Ultra event! Something neither of us thought of before that crazy conversation in January.
#ultra #ultramarathon #running #run #newlimits #growth #personaldevelopment #development #lifelessons #lessons #backyardultra
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