How running marathons or just running improved my work and everyday routine

Everyday we encounter moments in our lives when we don’t want to do something, when we feel tired, when we are bored. These moments put us against a dilemma – to embrace the tiredness and let it take over us or to push through it; to refuse to do the thing we have to do. Just to follow the first signal that pass through our bodies, the signal that says NO, DON’T DO IT, DO IT LATER, DO IT TOMORROW…. STOP.

Few months ago one sentence caught my attention. And that sentence is driving me every day ever since – when you are tired learn to rest, not to quit. At first it doesn’t seem like anything special. Just some words. But try saying this to yourself at a moment of exhaustion when you have so many things to do but the only thing you want to do is to go home, take of your shoes and jump on the couch and shut yourself down.

I can say I am a very active person. In my line of work I am always moving. I meet a lot of different people every day and this sometimes can be mentally exhausting /those who are working with people know what I am talking about/. When I am not working I am moving even more, try to travel, to take care of my family, my dog, to help my parents. I have a very busy daily routine and like everyone else when I come home in the evening I just want to push the shut down button.

I started running 2 years and one or two months ago /or I can say that at that moment running became my hobby/. Since then I competed in 8 full distance marathons and finished them and right now writing this blog I am on my way to compete in the 9^th marathon for me and 4^th this year and the 3^rd in 3 months but who’s counting… I competed but not finished one ultra marathon were of 100km distance I manage to run only 40km and needed to quit. And many half marathons and shorter distances. Of course for all that running the body need preparation. For a sport junky like me, physical trainings are something normal, like breakfast and lunch. So no problem with that for me. Where I faced my wall with my “hobby” is the mental part of it. I didn’t know that it would be so challenging and tough. Many people say and think that the marathon is a big challenge for their body, and they are right. Everything hurts before, during and especially after those 42km and 195m. But the one thing getting really tired is your brain. The muscle driving your body forward is not your right or left foot. It is the muscle that when your body is saying stop, it is saying keep going. When your feet are cramping this muscle is telling them just get to the next tree, then get to the next aid station there is water and isotonic drink it is good for you , yes, that’s right… keep pushing.

I have this talk in my head probably every marathon I run. The difference is that recently I am starting to talk to myself when I am closer to the finish line then before. In the beginning I was starting my monologues around km 15 to 20, now the inner me is waking up at km 30 to 35. So I guess my mind is becoming stronger. The other time I noticed this familiar feeling is during trainings. For runners not the marathon is hard but the training for it. Often it can be reaaaaaaaaaaaly boriiiiing /at least for me it honestly is sometimes/. And in my daily life there is a big difference.

Here are some of my thoughts and examples that can be useful:

• You become more self – disciplined. You start to wake up earlier, you are getting to work on time, no more 10 15, 30min delays.
  I work as a tennis coach and I have practices every morning from Monday to Friday at 7am. I cannot be late, but there are times that waking up at 6 or 6:30 or 6:45 is impossible. I wake up, I snooze the alarm. Then again and again… Recently I noticed a difference. Before I started my marathon journey I had a few mornings that I couldn’t get up. Lately I still have difficulties getting up in the morning /here I want to point out the difference between waking up and getting up. I do wake up every time when I hear the alarm, I just cannot get out of the bed/ but I overcome myself and just do it. And it came out from developing my personal desire not to quit during a marathon, or not to start walking… it is the same. Not to continue sleeping but just to get up, after that it’s easy.
  
• When you are tired you teach yourself to push little bit further. To not stop until you are done. Remember that sentence – when you are tired learn to rest, not to quit. In the daily routines we often start to postpone tasks when we are tired. We say we will do it after lunch, after work…. After I get some sleep and then the deadlines start to approach and the pressure grows. 
  
• When I am on the tennis court working, I often get stuck in one same routine. For example the same boy comes on Monday at 4pm, every Monday, every month etc… It can get a bit boring. But I found a way to deal with it and after that my work became more interesting for me and I even became better at what I am doing.
  
• If you want to run more than one marathon and not to feel like you’re gonna die during or after the race you need constant training. You need to be consistent. And by building this consistency for your training, without knowing it you become more consistent in a lot more things in your daily life. It can be your job, house chores, spending more time with your family, your hobbies. It can be anything. And one thing is certain – you will become a lot better in everything, because consistency brings results.
  
• You start to organize your time better.
  Nowadays we live in a very fast, challenging and changing environment. It is a big plus to know how and be able to organize your personal time. By squeezing a run every couple of days or every day /for everyone it can be different/ you start to plan your time. Starting to think when can I run tomorrow. When can I run this week. When can I run this month. And like this you start to plan ahead. If you can manage to keep the scheduled runs you’ll know how much time a day you will have to do other stuff.
  
• Running can save you money. Sounds crazy but it is true. Well, almost true. If you are not participating in an organized marathon every month or week and you are running regularly when you have free time, you keep yourself busy from the useless shopping for junk or when you think ‘ok I have some spare time lets go shopping’ and you spend some money that you could have saved if you went running.

Running develops routines and habits which are good for you. Marathon running will change your life for the better.

V.