Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads

Well...How did I get here? - Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison & Weymouth

Running

After all these years of running I thought I’d try and explain just what I learned from 23 years of Extreme Marathon Running. I mean, you can’t run 1,002 marathons without learning a thing or two about yourself, can you? So here goes…

Planning

I’m sure we are all aware of the sayings, ‘The Devil’s in the Detail’ and ‘Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail’… Yikes, I’ve used them both so many times over the years when explaining to clients how much my ‘Preparation Process’ has changed when planning and packing for the Marathon des Sables that I’ll freely admit that until meeting Lady Coleman, my approach was rather ‘Gung-Ho’. Using her attention to detail on my more recent trips, I’ve packed more out of necessity rather than desire and that’s the main driver behind my 6.5Kg minimum allowed rucksack weight at Race Registration.

And If I were to run the 2004Kms from London to Lisbon again, in consecutive daily 50km chunks, as I did in 2004, I’d be planning that one a bit differently as well. The two Michelin Road Atlases with a route highlighted in with a pink marker pen, one for me and one for the crew, would now be planned to the nth degree with GPS pinpoint accuracy and iPhone would now be the weapon of choice. A Spot tracker would’ve been most welcome in the heart of Spain for instance. In the Pre-Facebook and Twitter age, my daily updates were sent out to 100 pet email addresses minus images rather than a daily ‘Live’ to tens of thousands.

Goals

In modern day terminology, I’d be described as, ‘Extremely Goal Driven’. It’s a phrase however that’s over-used in my opinion and it’s more of a business term, than a running one. I mean there’s seldom a ‘Personal Performance Review’ that doesn’t mention setting ‘Newer and Bigger Personal Goals’. I prefer to be described as ‘Extremely Focused’. I once made a BBC Programme on the very subject. In my early years of running, people said I was bursting with ‘PMA’ (Positive Mental Attitude’) and that I had natural ‘NLP’ (Neuro Linguistic Programming), the science that claims there is a there is a connection between neurological processes (neuro), language (linguistic) and behavioural patterns learned through experience (programming), and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life.

It was a lot simpler than that for me. I had a clear notion of what it was that I wanted to achieve and got on with it. It was never a case of replacing ‘One Addiction with another’ and there was no need to understand the ‘Process’ of why it was so important to achieve. To me that was wasted time and energy that I could use a lot more wisely.

Failure isn’t an Option

Of course, it isn’t. I mean who sets out to ‘Fail’. Yet folk are only too quick to throw the towel in when the going gets tough in my opinion. I’ve set out 1,002 times to cover 26.2 miles or further and have always finished. It could be said that I’ve worked within my ‘Comfort Zone’ and that I’ve been lucky to avoid problems on my travels. Recently on marathon #998 I fell, fractured my shoulder and had a deep wound on my knee but I still finished. Sure, it hurt like hell, I severely bruised my EGO, and it still does but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of my planned #1000 at Nottingham the following month.

Being ‘Bombproof’ comes from the huge amounts of training and commitment that I’ve invested over the years. It means that I feel at one with my body and therefore know just what I am and what I’m not capable of.

Don’t ask me to ‘Ironman’ as I can’t swim very well and certainly not for 2.4 miles in open water plus, I don’t want or need to. I’ve been in places in races especially in some of the longer Ultras and Desert Races where it would have been far too easy to give in but still toughed it out. The stakes have always been far too high and the negativity of a ‘DNF’ would be like ‘Kryptonite’ on my ‘Starter Completer’ brain.

Coming back from the Marathon des Sables as a ‘DNF’ for instance on a plane with 400+ other people wearing their Medals and Finishers’ T-Shirts would be hell on earth for someone like me and reason alone to finish ‘The World’s Toughest Footrace’, at all costs.

New Levels of Pain

Pain’s an interesting one. The dictionary describes it as ‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage’. In reality it’s just an ‘Occupational Hazard’ and the Lance Armstrong ‘Pain is temporary - It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever’ quote doesn’t help that much when your feet are mashed. Over the years, I’ve learned to understand pain, manage it and mostly to try and avoid it. Getting to Lisbon from London running 50kms a day for 43 days has taught me a lot more about looking after my feet than reading the book ‘Fixing your feet’. It’s meant I’ve finished the MdS blister-free for years now using the techniques I learned the hard way out there on the hard shoulder and they are far simpler than the ones described and more effective than the ‘Feet Fixing Bible’ describe.

I swore after finishing the 145-mile Grand Union Canal Race with the sole of my left foot flapping off in 1998 that I’d never wear inappropriate trainers with really worn foot-beds or cheap supermarket socks ever again. It taught me a great deal.

Learn for Yourself

I had to when I started and I didn’t have any kit whatsoever for at least the first month of my running journey. I didn’t even time my runs and it was only just before my first half-marathon in April 1994 that I bought some running kit and went to a running store and bought some proper training shoes. Running Garmin and Strava-Free has its merits. I simply enjoyed the freedom that running brings.

I’ve learning the hard way and from my own mistakes rather than copying others, I remember a friend of mine saying he ran without socks so I tried that one out only to regret having bleeding heels post Marathon in August 1997.

Compression, Heel-Drop, Barefoot, etc. are purely man-made objects invented to part the ‘Keen-Runner’ from their hard-earned cash. Running should be more of an apprenticeship and to be a world-beater, takes many years not months. For me, it’s a lifetime’s work and Yes, I’m still learning.

Achievements - A Place to Shine

If you are looking for a new platform to achieve then look no further. It was very much a blank canvas when I started researching athletic feats and ultra-long-distance running. My ‘detailed’ research was in fact the 1998 Guinness Book of Records and the November issue of Runner’s World. The former told me I was too slow and the latter told me that I’d actually missed the bus when it came to running ‘Ultras’. However, there were ‘Gaps’. Huge, gaping, Gaps – well in Treadmill Running and with folk running Multi-Day Desert Races from the UK and boy have I exploited those. Also, Meg-Day Marathon running apart from JOGLE just hadn’t been exploited and so I thought of running the ‘Premier League Grounds’, ‘London2Lisbon’ and ‘Stoptober 2013’ provided a great platform to shine and build my running media profile.

Strengths & Weaknesses

It would be easy to list the qualities that have enabled me to achieve (Big Yawn) but back in the real world I’m honest about my strengths as well as my weaknesses. You see, like most men, I’d rather concentrate on the plusses and being an empire builder. But like most middle-aged mean running has made me realise that I’m not Super-Human, certainly never an Ironman, Sub-3-hour Marathon Man or Sub-40-minute 10km runner - I’m just me and I’m happy with who I am and what I’ve accomplished so far.

Life Rules

Running all those miles has given me an amazing ‘Time-Out’. I time to ‘Think’. A time to ‘Plan’ and a time to ‘Process’ the world around me. It’s given me a simplistic set of ‘Life Rules’. A very simple ‘Black and White’ approach. It’s often misunderstood but all I’m doing is telling folk straight that I’ve already been in the hurt-locker and know how to avoid it.

Life’s becoming more complicated year-on-year. Things aren’t any better and in reality, there’s just less time in between things to recover, evaluate and consider perhaps. Looking in on other folk’s worlds every day in my professional career I see the same issues I had way back in 1993/4 when I’d reached my ‘Point-Zero’ and went out on that first 100 step run to freedom and happiness.

A New Perspective

Seeing life in 4K UHD Colour for the first time is an amazing experience. The clarity of vision and attention to detail bring a whole new dimension to our visual senses. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get the same 4K vision into our own existence?  I call it ‘Taking off the Life-Blinkers’ the ones that limit our expectations and cause regret in later years. There will always be races that managed to ‘Get Away’ for me. Spartathlon, Badwater, running the London Marathon every day for a Year… It’s THE one I’d really wish I’d done but it doesn’t matter as I’ve probably ticked more of my ‘Bucket List’ than most.

I know that my experiences have helped me overcome some huge life-issues especially when I was ill last year with ‘Guillian-Barre Syndrome’. Getting a cure for GBS is like asking for a shoe recommendation for the MdS. Everyone has an opinion and yet NONE have the real answer. The Doctor’s now known by me as ‘Armchair Pundits’ have no idea of what the condition is like to have and only have previous experience of patients they’ve treated. If you’ve been there, experienced it only YOU will know…

I looked online for help and found that most folk that are GBS talk more of the symptoms mainly ‘Pain’ rather than a solution.

So, like my early days of running, I found my own way out of paralysis and against the odds have completed 26 marathons since my first steps in August 2016.

Conclusion

I’ve discovered a lot about life in the last 23 years. Regrets? Well I could have been faster. Yes, faster than my marathon PB of 3:24:21 but more so faster to where I’ve got to in knowledge right now. A person with a better understanding both of myself and of other people. It’s taken a long time and thousands of miles to get here but I implore everyone to make the most out of their running. It’s brought me so much joy and my recent 1000^th marathon was one of THE days of my life. So be open to change, be the person you’ve always wanted to be and ENJOY the whole process as much as I have.

There’s so much more to this than just getting the medal…

Rory Coleman - rory@rorycoleman.co.uk

1,002 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records

Location: Cardiff, Wales