On giving up

Saturday 20th October was my first run since the half marathon two weeks earlier. I planned for about an hour run. The first 20 minutes or so were fine and by the halfway point I realised I was going a bit faster than usual. then it started to hurt. Not my legs or my knees but my heart and chest. It was painful not just uncomfortable. I couldnt see how I was going to run another 15 to 20 minutes. So I told myself, just make it to this bus stop and see how you feel. Slow down a bit up this hill and then use the downhill stretch to get your breath back a bit. It still hurt. I didn't want to continue but I didn't want to give up. I knew why I was in this position. I was out of practice and I had gone off too fast and I wasn't using the right skills and techniques.

So I started telling myself finishing didn't matter. I focused on the next small step - reaching the next bus stop, the church, the big road junction. Every time I reached that small target I was able to push myself a bit further. I went a bit slower so I wasn't damaging myself. And I made it to the end.

This was a practical and valuable lesson. I learned another way of overcoming the desire to give up. I learned to slow down (rather than stop), to plan and make small steps, to reach the end by working through the discomfort (without causing myself serious damage) and gave myself another experience of making it through after I thought I wouldn't. So the next time I'm tempted to give up I can remember this experience and know that I can make it to the end and reach my goal.