We are the Champions...

‘No time for Losers’ – Mercury

Some forty years on from the Silver Jubilee Year of 1977, and I still sing along like an excited fifteen-year old school-boy whenever I hear this timeless Queen anthem. Just how many ‘Champions’ has this song ever accompanied I wonder? Freddie certainly marked lots of celebratory moments for folk when he wrote this one. And as someone who enjoys competing, I thought it would make for a good starting point for this week’s blog as I love the feeling of being a Champion, don’t you?

Back in the day, I loved the feeling of being a Champion and now as a Coach I get to be part of lots of other folk’s achievements, which is even better I’m finding.

You see, it’s been another winning week at Coleman Coaching, marked by some great emails and texts from excited Clients posting fresh PB’s on Sunday. Here’s one such message…

“I just went bananas, shouting, whooping and punching the air after seeing the finishing time” – Steve Howliston

His 3.09.17 PB at the MBNA Chester Marathon is over 30 minutes quicker than his best in December 2016, when we first started working together and I’m sure he’ll go sub-3 next year, no pressure there Steve…

But it’s only fair to say Steve’s PB was achieved by his pure hard work and 100% dedication to the training plan. I must say that I’ve enjoyed being part of his ‘Success Process’ and encouraging him to shape his future aspirations on answering his ‘What’s next for me?’ question.

Encouraging highly motivated successful people onto further success isn’t all that hard as they are already fully on board and eager to perform. ‘Success breeds success’- Well that’s what they say isn’t it?

However, along with the immensely positive Sunday night Emails and Texts, I also have an eye on social media and witness the ‘Facebook-Failure-Frenzy’, that accompanies every big weekend of running. I’m sure you’ve had a timeline littered with ‘DNF Posts of Woe’, from folk that simply haven’t put the time and effort needed into reach their goal. It’s frightening, especially on some of the longer more extreme events.

I mean, ‘If you’re going to take things seriously, then why bother?’

I’ve been bothered and for some time now and I’ve been genuinely scared that folk are placing themselves in a lot of danger whilst ticking off feats from their bucket-lists. My favourite and the ‘World’s Toughest Footrace’, The Marathon des Sables is now perceived as a sandy ‘London Marathon’. I’m not sure the guy I saw at one of the checkpoints this year receiving CPR would agree and it highlights the pressure that competitors place upon themselves each April in the heat of the Sahara Desert.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing as electrifying as the finish line of the MdS, achieving a Marathon or parkrun PB but they all have one thing in common and that’s you must do your ‘Running Apprenticeship’. It takes time, probably more time than you’d imagine, to get anywhere near as good as the ‘Running Heroes’ you may read about in Running Magazines or Online. I know, first-hand, having read about the amazing American Ultra-Runner Ann Trason, in Runner’s World Magazine in November 1994, her winning the Western States Endurance Race in the States got me interested in Trail-Running. And I made sure I had a few hard years of running marathons and ultras under my belt, before I knew I was ready to take on the Grand Union 145, MdS and Desert Cup in Jordan.

Back in the late-90’s there wasn’t the internet, ‘How-to-Books’, gear or technology to ‘Fast-track’ our way to running success and I had to work out my own running and training formulae to achieve Personal Bests that matched my potential and learned the hard-way how to run mega-day marathons fast, uninjured and blister-free.

Post 1,000 marathons and Guillian-Barre Syndrome the beauty of Coaching I’ve found is that you get to share that knowledge, see some of your training and racing techniques become part of Ultra-Marathon Running Folklore and revel in taking people past their wildest expectations and in some cases, go on to make then World-Class Athletes.

As Freddie says, ‘No time for Losers’ and no-one ever sets out wanting to lose -  However, you can reduce the probabilities of things going wrong and if you want to be sending good news Emails and Texts on Sundays like Steve, instead of posting ‘Facebook-Failures’, please give me a call or email me as I'd love to be part of your 'Championship'...

Happy Running Folks…

Rory Coleman - rory@rorycoleman.co.uk

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

Location: Cardiff, Wales