It's the weekend, I scroll through my Strava timeline and see the first results of friends and teammates who have taken part in a major race. I see the headlines, I see PBs and placings and think here and there, ‘I knew it’ or ‘well, I could have run that too’. It's a classic case. I’m massively envious. My spring was shit and not only that: I've been sitting around doing nothing for two weeks and haven't been running. If I'm honest, I should be thinking something like: ‘Great job over the last few months, deserved PB, deserved placing. But I'm not. I'm envious. And that's not normally my nature.
Because I love running, I love it when others love running and I'm the first to go up to others at races and congratulate them on their achievements, cheer them on, even if that means I might end up behind that person. I love this huge running community, which is usually very supportive and benevolent. I'd have to lie if I said I'd ever met anyone around me who was begrudging about running.
And well, it's not really me either. Just maybe a bit on the couch on a Sunday. And in the end, it's really just disappointment that I can't run myself. That I've been on the ropes for two weeks and that the nasty sinus infection just won't go away. I know that about myself and it will go away again, at the latest when I can put my running shoes back on, the temperatures rise again and I'm out on the trails and roads in the area.
And once I've run my first races, it will get even better. I have to say that I didn't attach much importance to competitions for a long time, but I've grown to enjoy them and I'm already looking forward to them. And I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who have already done so and am pleased that they have perhaps already achieved their first goals of the year. Period.
Small addition:
I know there's a fairly recent discussion about whether you should share running times, paces etc. because there are people who take this to heart. They value their achievements less and lose motivation. I can totally understand that. As a rule, I try to take this to heart and will only add times in the future if they fulfill a specific purpose. For me, times or placings are not a problem at all, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a concern for others. It's one of the few areas where I have no problem just looking at myself.
Mental Health update
I hade to postpone my last therapy session due to illness, but there is much to talk. I’m well, but need some assistance on running issues and some other things.
Running
NO RUNNING AT ALL. 😭
You can find all updates on my training plan for UTMB Obernai here.
The end
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I love your writing being so honest and I can totally relate to your feelings. I’ve been there many times even though things are going well for me right now. I also wrote about why we are comparing ourselves to others a couple of months ago. It’s an interesting topic and I recently asked myself quite often how I can maybe make my writing more motivating by not explicitly revealing numbers and data. it’s not an easy question. https://dasz.substack.com/p/why-we-compare-ourselves-to-others?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share