Fight from the Inside - Queen

No one is going to do it for you...

Taken from the 1977 Queen Album ‘News of the World’, this is one of their all-time stand out tracks for me written and sung by Drummer, Roger Taylor. Some forty years’ on and the lyrics still hit home every time I hear it. It’s probably struck home most when it’s been on my play-list towards the end of a super-long ULTRA or towards the end of a Mega-Day Marathon stint.

I believe ‘Fight does in fact come from the Inside’, in anything you wish to accomplish in life - let alone run and only the individual can make it happen.

You see, attitudes have changed dramatically since Roger Taylor’s anthem was written in a time when political correctness was unheard of and a more ‘Toughen-up Buttercup’ attitude prevailed. Then again, I’m sure things were probably even harsher in the War-Years, and every preceding generation will no doubt say, ‘it was a lot tougher in my day’, but in reality it was.

The Internet and especially Social Media in my opinion is shaping a modern-day ‘Namby-Pamby’ generation where averageness is becoming only too wildly accepted, especially in the world of marathons where it provides a platform to voice ‘failure’ and for those ‘failures’ to be celebrated by peers rather than questioned. The ‘Embarrassment Factor’ seems to have disappeared and you might call me a bit ‘Old School’ here but if I’d ever dropped out of the Marathon des Sables, I’d be deleting my Facebook Profile and go into hiding rather than announce my failure hoping for a ‘You did amazing to get to the start-line’ kinda comment.

Then again, it’s like that on any group discussion I’ve found and I’m not the best of forum members. As a former alcohol addict myself, I’ve been keeping a watching brief on a couple of Facebook Groups designed to encourage people to start living alcohol-free. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great use of Social Media to get folk supporting each other, yet there are so many ‘You did really well’ posts when things have gone wrong and the whole being Alcohol-Free debate is one where Sobriety can be switched on and off due to circumstances. One post announcing using Cannabis to reduce the Alcohol pangs took the biscuit for me yesterday and I did post a very straight answer as you might imagine. It was of course very quickly replied to saying that I was being too harsh and that I should never go into ‘counselling’.

It did make me laugh as that’s really what I’ve been this past ten years or so to great success.

Anyway, it’s that ‘Harshness’ or rather that ‘Honesty’ that works. Helping people see themselves in a clear light and understand the ‘Real’ person within helps re-build that Person into the one they really want to be and when the chips are down in a Race or in Life itself, it can make the difference between completion and failure or even Life and Death.

That long hard look and self-realisation has got me through some of the world’s toughest footraces as well as from the brink of death more recently, and I believe can help anyone in their search for ‘Inner Calm’ and ‘Life-Satisfaction’.

The desire for ‘Life-Satisfaction’ comes from within not from anyone else...

Fight from the Inside. Toughen-up and rather than being part of the ‘Average Crowd’ start being part of your own ‘Awesome Future’.

Rory Coleman - rory@rorycoleman.co.uk

1,001 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records

Location: Cardiff, Wales