When the Marathon Asks You, Just Say Yes

Unha vez máis aparece o gran Michael Kofuzi por estes pagos para nos dar respostas, para nos ilustrar e obsequiar cunha peza de motivación sobre eses obsesivos 42 195 metros, sobre o maratón, e para ese momento aló polo km 32 no que nos damos contra o muro mítico, muro que case con total seguridad ha chegar, como ben sei eu por experiencia propia.

A utilidade destes consellos é que en realidade son válidos xa non para calquera distancia de virtualmente calquera carreira ou modalidade deportiva —sempre sempre sempre hai un momento de dúbida no que quedamos entre a espada e a parede e temos que dar unha resposta única e inequívoca—, senón tamén para moitas facetas, campos e situacións da vida.

[O fragmento de vídeo que incrusto, transcribo e saliento aquí dura uns 3 minutos, apróximadamente do minuto 19:40 ao 22:40].

 

... But that's when things started to get really really tough. So at the 21 mile marker of this course you go on your last kind of like out and back, you go out for two miles and you come back and then there's like another mile for the finish, but that was mostly that 35 to 40 k final 5 k split. It started to get a little bit sunnier at that point too, so it was a little bit warmer and far this spot on the last out and back, it started to get a little bit quieter on that course 'cause, you know, some of those areas towards the end of a finish line people would rather just meet their people at the finish line, so there sometimes aren't that many people, I kind of felt like it got a little bit quieter too; and it's really in this part or the race where I'm starting to feel that earlier kind of negotiation that your body has with you or that your mind has with you, and maybe you could ease up a little bit, really starts to get a lot louder and more kind of persuasive and really starts turning into a lot of doubt.

But I think the key to kind of breaking through some of those mental barriers and some of those physical barriers in the marathon is to think of it like this: All you have to do to achieve your marathon running goals is to say yes, that you want it. The problem is the question gets asked to you at the most difficult time... for a lot of marathons my mind was so kind of like overwhelmed with the intensity, with the pain, with the kind of the noise of the marathon, that I couldn't even remember to ask myself that question.

The marathon is asking me "do you still want to hit your goal?", and a lot of times that's when you answer, you don't realize what you're answering, but you're answering "well, maybe I need to back off just a little bit; I`m not sure, I need to play it safe, maybe I should ease up": that's a marathon asking you if you still want your goal and that's you answering "no, I don't".

I've learned that you can't give up in those tough last couple of 5k splits; you have to really dig deep and remind yourself that when that question gets asked to you, "do you still want it?", you have to just say yes. 

So the mantra for this marathon definitely became "just say yes". "Just say yes" kept reminding myself that I still wanted it and that it was up to me to decide whether I wanted to hit a goal for that day or not. Really going to the well, the thing that I avoid during the entire marathon training block, emptying myself out, leaving everything out on the course, on the roads, that's what I went to Tokyo to do; I went there to put it all out there, to see what I could do if I laid everything out on the line.

And so that's where that other phrase that I used, which was "what did you come here to do? This is what we came here to do" that became the other mantra for the marathon.

Porque puedo.