I dropped into my old favorite coffee shop a few weeks ago and was fortunate enough to get a table where I could do some work that morning. An old friend of mine, a regular at the shop, dropped in to share a table with me. When he took off his coat, I noticed he was wearing a race shirt from the 2007 White Lake Half Iron. It suddenly occurred to me that I had more old race shirts than new race shirts. I still wear my lime green 2006 White Lake Half Iron shirt from time to time, not to mention, my favorite 2008 Uwharrrie Mountain Run shirt. In 2008, it was something special to get a technical shirt for a race. While technical shirts haven’t completed faded from the race scene, they are not as common at races as they used to be. Neither am I, for that matter.
My friend and I, as we are prone to do from time to time, lamented the good old days when we actually had a “season” of races, when we actually had enough hair to comb, when fine print was easy to read, and how those old cotton race t-shirts that are now tight, were once loose around our mid-sections. The effects of aging are upon me (I just turned 46) and complicated with work and family responsibilities I don’t have the same motivation I once did to have my feet in the pool at 5:30am three times a week. I haven’t seen the sun come up while running in years. While I managed to push myself to 5K and Half Marathon PR’s in 2014, I participated in only once race in 2015, a turkey trot in which I struggled to a finish 9 minutes off my PR a year before.
Now, I am not one to make New Year’s Resolutions but, the turkey trot made me want to fix a lot of things about myself. I started the process of making some resolutions. I looked at what I didn’t like about my life and my body and put my attention there. I immediately threw myself into some aggressive new changes in behavior. For a while, it worked great. But, like a lot of people who set resolutions for themselves, I couldn’t sustain those changes and I fell off the mark. In some ways, it was a relief to abandon all those things I knew I should be doing. So much focus on my negative traits quickly became just a new source of frustration. While I was glad it was over, I realized I was still left with the same old me I was trying to change in the first place.
By chance one day, I read an article about changing your perspective on New Year’s Resolutions. Rather than taking on heavy goals aimed at eradicating your weaknesses and problems, instead, focus on growing and celebrating the things that you value and enjoy the most. Superficial as it may be, I enjoy earning a new race shirt. I enjoy seeing other people in their race shirts, too, and thinking or saying out loud— I did that race! When I started to envision myself wearing a new race shirt to the store the Monday afterwards, I felt good. I thought about how I typically do not put too much effort into washing my age off my calf and suddenly I felt better about being 46 years old.
It’s a subtle but, important difference. In this new positive and peaceful state of mind, I was more receptive to change. I was quickly able to see a creative way to change that had eluded me when I dwelled on my weaknesses. I was able to entertain possibilities I did not want to consider before and was more motivated by these new creative changes than I was at hunkering down and fixing all my “failures”.
I’m excited now about the possibility of earning some more race shirts this year. I hope you are, too! If you are, then you have just the issue in your hands that can help you make it a reality— the 8th Annual SPORToften.com Event Guide. In it, you will find hundreds of local events and our new national Half Marathon Guide.
Inspire. Perform. Endure.
