Lessons from an Ultramarathon
During the Christmas break, I attended my third ultramarathon since I started running long distances. As many people might imagine, running for hours upon hours can get tiring physically. A person must be in tune with their body’s needs. Your body needs to be prepared to take in water and calories throughout the run. I have the good fortune of having a body that can exercise immediately after eating a heavy meal, so eating small things during the run isn’t an issue.
Then there is the dreaded “wall” that many runners and athletes have hit at some point. Your body needs to slow down or just stop. In your mind, quitting is a genuine possibility. You question your fitness. You ask why you even decided to attempt something so difficult. In ultra-running, athletes refer to this as “the pain cave.” All you can think about is the amount of pain you are currently enduring. You can do one of two things when you hit this point – quit or keep going with the hope that it will pass.
For this race, I hit the pain cave for a short while. My training had prepared me well for what I needed to endure, and luckily it only lasted for about 30 minutes. That’s a short amount of time, considering others have spent several hours in their pain caves. I’m grateful that it was short, but it did teach me a few things that I wanted to share with you. I hope that you can apply to your day-to-day life as a leader.
Run your race. In many instances, you are your only competition. Don’t compare yourself to others because you will find every flaw to make you question yourself. Ultimately, you and your team better serve the organization by giving your best efforts.
On that note, there are a lot of people rooting for you. During the race, everyone was cheering for each other. I’m not talking about a crowd. I’m talking about other runners as you pass by each other or see them at the aid station. They want you to do your best because it brings out the best in them. This is true for leadership as well. When you bring your best to the team, you will get the best out of others.
Planning is crucial, and it helps you achieve the goal. When I started running, I planned on pacing myself off my heart rate. I could not get it down to where I wanted, so I went off how I felt instead. This adjustment helped tremendously. Flexibility is always necessary when trying to achieve your goals. It might not be exactly how you envisioned reaching your goal, which is okay.
Although I didn’t know any of the people I was running with, nor am I fluent in German, I noticed a camaraderie amongst everyone participating. Shared hardship, in my experience, has always brought teams closer together. This has been true of field exercises, deployments, or even a hard PT session. Be a leader that challenges others. People only realize their potential when put in challenging situations that test their mental and physical limits. They may not like it while it is happening, but they will learn tremendous lessons.
~Rey