ComaBoy Running
Runner, Diabetic and Waffler
Taking inspiration from others
When do we become a runner?
I don’t remember a point at which I became known as ‘the runner’ amongst my friends but I know the point at which I became one in my own mind; the last two miles of my first race.
In every sense of the world I shouldn’t have been there; a few years before I’d been given the last rites, six months before I could barely run a mile and six days before I’d struggled to make it to 10 miles before collapsing. On paper, this stumbling, over striding diabetic sloshing Lucozade and tangled in headphone cables was about as far from an elegant and efficient human as you could get but, having come so far, there was no way that I was going to stop until I’d crossed the finishing line.
This week I took part in the JP Morgan 5.5k race around Battersea Park with my work colleagues. To be honest we were a ragtag army of various sizes, shapes and abilities and we knew that we weren’t going to trouble the faster teams. For instance, one of our team hadn’t ran in 25 years and was adamant that she was going to walk. When we reached the start line she started a very gentle jog - “just the first few hundred metres” she said - but a few hundred became a kilometre, one became two, which soon become four and before we all knew it, she was almost home. I’ve never seen someone so proud of what they have achieved as when she crossed the finishing line. In every sense of the words she’d done something fantastically wonderful.
I realised then that it’s determination that sets the runner apart from the jogger. It has nothing to do with the number of times we run, the number of races we enter or how far we run, the moment you become a runner is the moment you take that step beyond what you know and keep going even though every cell of your body is telling you to stop.
I’ve honestly learnt more about myself though running than through any psychologist, self-help tape or lofty discussion. For me, running has taught me a resilience I simply didn’t have before and a confidence to know that, whilst times are tough and difficult, if I just keep going that I will reach my goals. and if you go for it you’ll will be able to achieve things you never thought werepossible.
I don’t remember a point at which I became known as ‘the runner’ amongst my friends but I know the point at which I became one in my own mind; the last two miles of my first race.
In every sense of the world I shouldn’t have been there; a few years before I’d been given the last rites, six months before I could barely run a mile and six days before I’d struggled to make it to 10 miles before collapsing. On paper, this stumbling, over striding diabetic sloshing Lucozade and tangled in headphone cables was about as far from an elegant and efficient human as you could get but, having come so far, there was no way that I was going to stop until I’d crossed the finishing line.
This week I took part in the JP Morgan 5.5k race around Battersea Park with my work colleagues. To be honest we were a ragtag army of various sizes, shapes and abilities and we knew that we weren’t going to trouble the faster teams. For instance, one of our team hadn’t ran in 25 years and was adamant that she was going to walk. When we reached the start line she started a very gentle jog - “just the first few hundred metres” she said - but a few hundred became a kilometre, one became two, which soon become four and before we all knew it, she was almost home. I’ve never seen someone so proud of what they have achieved as when she crossed the finishing line. In every sense of the words she’d done something fantastically wonderful.
I realised then that it’s determination that sets the runner apart from the jogger. It has nothing to do with the number of times we run, the number of races we enter or how far we run, the moment you become a runner is the moment you take that step beyond what you know and keep going even though every cell of your body is telling you to stop.
I’ve honestly learnt more about myself though running than through any psychologist, self-help tape or lofty discussion. For me, running has taught me a resilience I simply didn’t have before and a confidence to know that, whilst times are tough and difficult, if I just keep going that I will reach my goals. and if you go for it you’ll will be able to achieve things you never thought werepossible.
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