During the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) did an hilarious bit when he became part of the London Symphony Orchestra playing the Chariots of Fire theme song. During the performance, while he unhappily poked out a single note repeatedly on the synthesizer, he faded into a daydream of running on the beach with the runners from Chariots of Fire. Of course, Mr. Bean could not keep up with the athletes, and flagged down a car to give him a lift to the finish line.
And here for your viewing enjoyment is the clip: :Mr. Bean Chariots of Fire
How many times have I been on a run and thought, "You know what I need right now? A car." Well, it has happened at least once. Okay, more than once. I love running, but every run isn't all high fives and feelings of accomplishment. Sometimes it is just hard. The hardest run this week was on Wednesday night, after we ran to the top of Westwood Plateau (7 km of uphill)and then had to run down again (all in the POURING RAIN). ( I am not going to go into detail about how running in the pouring rain can be a test of character,as I have covered that already in an earlier post, "Wall of Water," but lets just say it was highly influential in how I felt about the run). Now, for some, running 7 km up hill would be the hardest part. Not so for me. The hard part was running DOWN. And the reason for this is part psychological and part physical.
For me, the run DOWN the hill was like the brussel sprouts at Easter Dinner. It was not the main part of the meal, but it was part of the whole spread. Brussel sprouts are good for you, but in a totally different way than turkey, but without turkey, there would be no meal. Nobody ever shows up to Easter dinner for the brussel sprouts. I don't even really like brussel sprouts, but I eat them because they go with turkey.Going up the hill is the main meal: the turkey, while going down the hill is the bitter tasting, hard, brussel sprouts. And for the sake of this analogy, the brussel sprouts are cold. So, psychologically, I didn't care about the run down the hill because all I really wanted to eat was the turkey. I showed up for the turkey. Physically, the run down the 7km hill was cold- it was like the brussel sprouts were just taken out of the freezer. So not only were they just a supplement to the main course, but they were cold and hard much like the ends of my fingers on the way down. It is hard to enjoy something when you are beginning to wonder if you will ever enjoy the sense of touch again. This was a time when I could have really used Mr. Bean's car.
Remember all that mental strength stuff I talked about a few weeks ago? Well all that inner strength isn't going to help me one iota if I am not motivated to get the job done. So why didn't I call a cab for the ride down the hill (apart from the fact that I didn't have my phone on me)? Well I get my motivation from many places. Perhaps one of the strongest motivating factor is fear of failure. If I am going to complete this marathon, I need to be both physically and mentally strong. The only way I am going to be able to do this is by completing the training. If I don't do the training and I don't complete the marathon, then I will be letting a whole bunch of people down (my family, the BC Lung Association, all the people that donated to the BC Lung Association and myself, just to name a few). Also, my running companions,Joan and Jack might have been worried if I suddenly disappeared (This is why running in a group is so much better, people!) And, it certainly would be a terrible end to this highly entertaining and informative blog, if I didn't finish. (Yes, you are supposed to laugh at this last statement).
So what is the moral of this story?
Sometimes you have to eat some cold, possibly frozen, brussel sprouts with your turkey.
Happy Easter Everyone!
Oh, and I ran 61 km this week, and never once did I flag down a car to get a ride to the end.
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