Chris and Victoria before starting the Gran Trail Courmayeur in 2019.
Here is the scene. You are in a race. You’re feeling tired. You see a trail that would let you skip a bit of the course. It’s cheating, but you’re tired and want to get to the end as soon as you can. Do you take that shortcut?
Now picture this; you’re on a training run out in the hills. You planned on a 30 mile route, but you’re getting tired. You’re hungry and the weather is dire. Your clothes are drenched through, your socks are squelching in your shoes and your legs ache. There is an option to take off five miles so that you can get back to your car a little earlier. Do you take that shortcut?
Let’s look at that first scenario. You take the shortcut. You cheated. Whether you get found out or not, you know it, and you’re going to live with that. I am the sort of person that would be irked by this. I couldn’t do it, and I hope that you couldn’t either.
With the second scenario, you have made a decision to make things easier. You’ve cut your run short and you’re back in your nice, warm, comfortable car earlier than planned. Do you determine the route in a race? Do you decide on what the weather will do in a race? Do you plan exactly the point at which your legs will feel worn out? You can’t control these things... and more importantly, you have probably just missed out on a wonderful five miles of trails, in biblical conditions you may never see again. You’ve lost out twice.
I’m sure many of you, like me, follow far too many running and ultrarunning specific groups and pages on social media. Something I notice a lot, is people, often relatively inexperienced distance runners, looking for shortcuts to success. You may probably already be able to tell from my somewhat laboured points (above!), that I am not a fan of shortcuts.
Somewhere in the Cairngorms with springer spaniels DeeDee and Winston; there are no training partners more reliable, or as eager
Running is hard.
Training is hard.
Suffering is good for you.
I’m not talking about the suffering you choose to put yourself through; getting up a little earlier to get your runs in, sacrificing some of your social life to take extra time getting to a decent hill for reps, or taking a quarter of your weekend up with a long training run. That’s normal for any long, or ultra distance athlete in training. And equally I’m not talking about suffering at the hands of somebody else, or suffering mentally due to medical conditions. I’m talking about those training sessions which you are struggling to finish. Those sessions where you are looking for shortcuts to get back to the car a bit earlier. Or where you are telling yourself to skip a rep or two because you forgot your jacket and you’re getting cold and wet. Or when you’re feeling lazy and let yourself sit back and do less, or do nothing.
Sweet relief.
Now my experience is clearly skewed toward ultra distance running, but what I’m saying is true (I believe!) for any endeavour where you are trying to be the best that you can be at something; athletics, playing an instrument, speaking a foreign language, axe throwing, competitive eating - I’m rambling - but my point is PUT THE HOURS IN. If you want something, don’t expect to get it without working for it. Sure, there may be a few people you come across who appear to pick things up quicker than you, or appear to be better than you at something without putting as much work in, but you have no control over them, so stop worrying. The onus on improving yourself, on getting stronger, improving your stamina and being better at suffering, is down to you. Work on you.
Chris post win at the Hardmoors 200 with two of his heroic support crew, Jason and Kelsey.
And despite all of the work you put in, and hours you sacrifice to become a better ultra distance runner (or whatever else you want to be), accept that sometimes, things will not go to plan. I have certainly had big races where things have not gone anywhere near to plan, despite good training blocks. During races, I’ve struggled to move in excessive heat and walked down wonderful gradual descents in a strop; I’ve slept for around an hour on the side of a high mountain when struggling to breathe at altitude during a race which shouldn’t have required any sleep (!); I’ve thrown up everything I had consumed in the first 30 miles of a 24 hour race and struggled to eat again during the race; I’ve developed rhabdomyolysis relatively early on in a 100 mile race (without knowing what it was). I finished each of the races mentioned above, learnt from them and got over them. I trained, I tried and things didn’t work out. Accept that, because sometimes, when you train, you try and things do work out, everything is worth it. Every single step of your training (including your perceived failures) has led you to that success, and you earned it through your hard work. There is no greater feeling than hard work paying off.
A lot of people are looking to emulate the top runners by looking at the small things that they can spend money on and such like. What shoes does the UTMB winner wear? What is the body fat percentage of an elite ultrarunner? Which race vest does Kilian wear? Can that GPS watch tell me how fast I should be able to run a marathon?
Don’t get me wrong, the companies selling these things are loving it. Their marketing machines are working a charm, and we are all lapping it up. But is it making us any faster? No, of course it isn’t.
Do you know how you can become a better ultrarunner?
By not taking shortcuts.
Get uncomfortable.