EP. 133 - Life Lessons from Running a 50KM Ultra Marathon | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the further your lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you, episode 133 today. And today we're getting a bit more personal. I'm talking about life lessons that I have found while running my most recent 52 kilometer ultramarathon. Now, this has happened just at the time of recording this, literally a week ago.

Speaker 1: 0:26

By the time you're hearing this, it might be a couple of weeks, but what I wanted to actually take you through was just not the actual run. I'm not talking about the run. I'm not doing a race recap in this video. This is obviously the further your lifestyle podcast, but really helping you understand some of the relevant things that go from my mind, or the relevant things that I have to deal with, or the relevant things that are relatable to running a 52 K ultra marathon versus to what we actually have to take on in real day everyday life, and things which maybe you can help to understand for yourself. And why I actually love running so much is because there is that parallel of if you can do it here, you can do it there, and it is almost a one to one ratio in that sense, without getting too technical, of course. So I've just pulled out a whole bunch of different kind of like lessons or little points that I wanted to kind of bring to your attention. I'm going to discuss it in my own, in my own flavor. I haven't gone into detail, I've just literally written out a couple of dot points and we'll go through them together. So that's what we're getting into today. So buckle up and let's get into it.

Speaker 1: 1:32

So point number one that I wanted to address and if you are here on the YouTube and you know watching along, you can see them up on screen, but I'm going to read them out to you anyway. So number one was life sucks, but we charge on anyway. And the reason why I'm very frank with this is because, well, if you're a runner, but you would know this, but the same with life. We go through life and things happen. Things don't go to plan, things can get ugly. It's like the roller coaster ride. You know, I talk about this when I talk about my business. I talk about this with life as well. And running is exactly the same. It is a roller coaster of events. And when we, when we do the comparison between life and running, especially in a 52 K ultra marathon which you know did over I think it was over 75,000 steps and nine hours of running.

Speaker 1: 2:19

There was moments in there where you feel good, but there's moments in there where things suck, Like you saw. You've got blisters, you've got things that just not feeling right, but you've got a whole lot of long way to go until you can get to where you want to be. And that's like life. You know there are going to be moments in life where it feels like it sucks. It feels like things aren't going to plan. You're going to be hurt, you're going to be pushed down, you're going to be thinking is this, is this worth it for what you're trying to pursue? And I mean my short answer of that is yes, it's always worth it. We just have to battle through it, we have to charge on, and getting to that point is easier said than done. I totally understand that and I can respect that that it's not as simple as just saying I suck it up and get it done, because we have to work through it. You have to find the way to get through it and some of these subsequent points that I'm going to go through. I kind of relevant to it.

Speaker 1: 3:08

But you know, there was moments during the run where you know you feel like you're on a run as high and everything's great and you're all airy fairy. And then the next thing it's like you're contemplating why am I doing this? And that's tough. You go to dark places, but you also go to great places where you're able to, you know, overcome and show yourself that you're more than capable. And that's what life is. It's just, we're just running a big race and you know, what you do today does not define the rest of your life in terms of this is what your life will be exactly. But we also have the power to be able to mold what that can potentially look like as we continue to show up daily and make a difference.

Speaker 1: 3:45

Just like training for this ultra. It took me 21 weeks to train for it. I couldn't just expect to rock up, you know, without any training, and just get it done. Maybe, you know, leap perform again, but definitely not me. So that's number one. Life sucks, but we charge on anyway, right? Number two is have a plan. But no, the plan won't always go as planned, which is funny. And I think this is important because and we talk about this quite a lot here on the podcast right, you know, having a bit of a game plan what's your end game, where do you want to be? What's your north star, what are you working towards, what are the things you want to achieve? And having you know an idea of where you want to be in one year, two years, five years, ten years, and working your wards your way towards them. And it's the same for the ultra. Like I had a plan, I had a routine that I wanted to follow with my nutrition, with my fluids, with what I expected, you know my timing, where things were going to be, where I was meeting my crew, all those things.

Speaker 1: 4:38

But things get thrown out the window because things don't go to plan. The weather changes, you start to feel something that you hadn't planned for, you get blisters, or you things change right, like life as we were just talking about. Things pop up as a roller coaster and it doesn't always go as planned. There's a really great book called your next five moves and that talks about you know, you have this idea of where you want to be going, but also have some offshoots of thinking well, if this doesn't get a plan, what's the next step that I go to? That's still going to get me towards where I want to be. And a good way that you can look at this is is what I'm doing today or is what I'm doing in this run getting me closer to where I need to be or where I want to be going forward? If we look at it from a running perspective, short term might be a 30 minute run, might be a nine hour run still short term but knowing that if I'm just taking the steps forward, I'm getting closer to where I want to be.

Speaker 1: 5:29

And it's the same with life. You have a plan. Things won't necessarily always go as planned, and understand that. But understand that that doesn't mean it's the end, doesn't mean that you can't keep going towards you what we want to go. You just gotta Suck it up, or you have to figure it out, or you have to pivot, or you have to adjust, or you have to find another means to getting there right. So have a plan, but know that the plan won't always go as planned. Number three is have a team to keep you honest and a team you can trust. And I think this is super relevant for life because we want to surround ourselves with people that are, you know, advocating for you, supporting you, cheering you on, that are going to be there to help you when things aren't going right or when things are going well, you know supporting you and encourage you and celebrating with you.

Speaker 1: 6:13

And in the run, you know rocking up to, because there's a number of different checkpoints during the run and the first one is like 21 K and by that time you know been running for that three hours and you know chance to change clothes, chance to get some food. We restock on Water, things that I might need for the next leg, and you know, coming into that, I've got mom and dad. Then I've got carl and dad. His job was purely just to drive, mom's job was to navigate and you know to track me to know when we needed to, they needed to be there. Colors job was just all things running related. Because she's a runner, she knows what I need and she runs with me. She, she can keep me honest.

Speaker 1: 6:49

And coming into those, you know, into those crew stations, I don't have to think about anything. They asked me how you feel and what's going on. I can say I need this or I. And if I don't know if I'm delirious, which those points? Where I was, you know Carla knows best what she needs dad's help filling up water, mums, you know, do you know? And it's just being able to put that trust completely in them, knowing that they're going to do what they need to do to help me get through of where I need to be, and that it's.

Speaker 1: 7:18

It's going through that experience, having never done that experience before I've crude, but I haven't actually been crude for is amazing, because the mental power, the mental stress is just gone. You just walk in and you're just doing things. They're handing you food, you're giving you all the things. You've got the plan already in place of what you want, but you've got backups. You know, if this isn't going to plan, how are we going to do it? I, you know I was getting really sore pain. Dad had panadol, gave me panadol and they all seem like little things. But in life that's sometimes. What we need is just the support with the little things, someone that's going to rock up and give you a smile and say, hey, you'll be right. Today, it's all good. So have a team or have a group of people that you can surround yourself with that will keep you honest and that you can trust and that you can rely on, and it works both ways.

Speaker 1: 8:03

The next one is fuel is power. Without it you will not move, obviously being very relatable to running. If you don't have the right nutrition, if you're not keeping hydrated, then things will start to seize up, getting cramps and things like that. So it's important that we do fuel ourself in the right way. Now I'm not here to talk about you know what you're eating and all that jazz. No, what I'm saying is there's certain things that we can do in life, in preparation, to keep us field, and it might be whether it's exercise or, you know, doing the physical to help us stay motivated, to help us feel fueled.

Speaker 1: 8:38

But I think fuel also comes in the you know the reins of what does motivate you, what gets you inspired, what gets you up in the morning, what gets you excited to get out there and do what you want to do. And if you don't have that, you will, you'll have a lack of purpose. You will think, well, what's the point and I think that's super important is because when we have purpose and when we know our why and we're going to get to that shortly. It gives us the fuel and that fuel gives us the power to move forward, and definitely during the run, you know being able to understand why I'm doing it. But that comes to the next point. But actually making sure I've got all the things I need to get me from A to B or the start to finish. I had the right foods. The water was a challenge because it was a lot hotter than expected, but you know, I had the right gear as well and it's just a matter of then pushing through, which leads me to my next point is understanding your why. You know, why are we doing these things? Now don't start contemplating why you're doing life.

Speaker 1: 9:35

But when it came to the running, this run is very important run to me because it was my first ultra that I had done with Carla a couple of years ago. So to me it was, it was my best run that I'd ever done. Like, I enjoyed it. It wasn't hard, it was good, and coming out of this run, going through this run, it was horrible, it was terrible, it was painful, it was sore and it was not fun. So you challenge yourself as like, why the heck am I doing this? And definitely at the end of the run I was contemplating you know, I don't know if I want to do this again because it's tarnished what I originally had this run as, which was a fun run, something that I enjoyed and something that was an easier run to do because I was well prepared for it. But in this second sense, things didn't go as planned and therefore I was frustrated. So you challenge your why, why am I doing this?

Speaker 1: 10:21

And I think that we need to understand that with life as well. You know what are we doing and why are we doing it. And if you're just doing something for the sake of doing it, but you don't understand why, you might actually realize that you're not really doing it for the right reasons, and you know it might all come down to work and money and things like that, but even things as simple as me doing this podcast. Why do I do this podcast? What is my intention here? And so, understanding your why is what's going to enable you to refine your focus and refine your feet to be able to push on, because if you're 36K deep into a 52K run and you're struggling, you got to do some stuff to dig deep and to find the other 14, 16 kilometers, which is easier said than done. So understanding your why, I think, is super relevant for running for life, and on a small scale.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Running is that good, you know, I guess, example size of what life will be, because you know, as you go through life, there will be moments where you're down and you need to challenge. Why am I doing this? What is my purpose? To reinvigorate what it is that you're trying to achieve and to remotivate you. So actually gets me to the next point, which is leverage your inner power to get you through the tough and we spoke about fuel is your power right? So, understanding what's motivating, understanding you you know what's going to get you moving and then understanding your why. You put those two together and then you have your inner power because you've got what you need to get going. You understand your why you're doing this to get going. Therefore, you can leverage that to push yourself through, to see it through to the end, even if it is one step at a time, even if it is walking, maybe not running, but the point is that you're moving forward and you're getting through what you need to get through, which is the toughness of life or in this case it was the run and this is all.

Speaker 1: 12:12

It's easy for to say all these things and I guess I understand that. Everyone's going through different parts in their life, with a young, old in between, whatever Right, and we all have different circumstances. It's not an apple to apple ratio, compare, comparison. How I live is different, how you live, what you experience is what I Don't experience. There's a lot of differences, but the reality is it's like we all are going to have bumps in the road and it kind of gets summarized into this final point that I want to share, and that is goes like this there will be scars, injuries, bumps and issues along the way.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Think of this as your what brings the art to life, feel or vibe. They will become your stories, they'll become your memories and lessons and, ultimately, what makes life beautiful. And when I reflect back, since finishing the run, I've had two big blisters like the size of my thumbs, and I'm not just saying the length but like the thickness on each side of my foot feet and They've been so painful, have been out of run, took a few days to really get them eased off and they've been brutal. But now they're Memories, their stories there, things that have been left there to help paint a picture and tell a story of. You know the art of life, you know what it is, and when you have those two is when you reflect back and you move past them. They're really not big deals, but you can leverage those to then reflect on like, well, you know, you've made it this far, you've achieved that.

Speaker 1: 13:39

Or you can look back on the battle scars or the things that you were able to do, just another thing you were able to conquer, just another thing that you were able to beat. And I think in the moment it can be hard to understand that. But as we progress through and look back on these things, we can leverage them as again coming back to a fuel for power and a way that we can understand what is our why and our purpose. And when you tie all those things together, that, yes, life sucks but you have a plan and you work towards that plan and you have a team to keep you honest and to support you on that plan, to motivate you, encourage you, celebrate with you and keep you honest. And then you have all those things that come together to help fuel you write, which give you the power to be able to move forward while understanding your why. You then leverage your list together to create, ultimately, what will be a beautiful piece of art which is your life, and.

Speaker 1: 14:30

And that is all taken from a 52 K ultra marathon, which, in that essence it is. It's, it's, it's tough, it's ugly, it's dirty, it's hard work, but it's something that changes your life or your perspective on things. And, needless to say, as much as it's a bit of a love hate relationship, like we do in life, things don't go to plan, things aren't what we always want, and it is a bit of a love hate relationship, but in the end I look back and think, no, it was worth it, I would do it again and it's a part of me that I don't regret. And we need to process these things in a way that helps us understand the why, the purposes, the, the intentions and the results, all the lessons from those situations, those experiences, those memories and those moments we share right. So that is my life lessons I found while running a 52 K ultra marathon and, as brutal as it was, reflecting back, it's great.

Speaker 1: 15:31

If you want to check out that video, if you want to see that experience, I'll put this up in the show notes as well. You can also see it up on screen but Goes for about 25 30 minutes I think. But it takes you through the start to finish and the things that I was feeling. There was a lot of things that I missed because Ultimately, by the end I was absolutely just wrecked and, you know, totally delirious. But I'll be doing a bit of a race recap on this. That video might also be out as well by the time you'll listen to this. I can put those links in the show notes as well.

Speaker 1: 15:59

But if you have any questions or comments about this and how your your I guess maybe ways that you try to take life lessons from other parts of your life to help you push forward or to use that as a parallel, parallel to motivate you in life, leave a comment below. Let me know. I'd be more than curious and more than happy to continue the conversation. I would love to continue the conversation and you know, if there's things that you're working towards and you think this is super relevant, let me know. Also, I would love to hear what you're working towards and the different lessons that maybe you're you've learned from this or you're wanting to learn more than happy to continue that conversation. Appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day and cheers.