The numbers tell a story…

…but not the ONLY story.

When I started running back in the day, I got tangled up in my numbers.

Miles per minute pace.

What time I could run 10km in. 5km? Half marathon? Marathon?

Other runners when meeting quickly assess where they are in comparison to the other runner “what’s your 10k time then? Oh I ran Tokyo last year, I did a sub 3 hours..” blah blah blah.

The running pissing contest always makes me smile. It’s so interesting that people seem to need to understand where they sit in the pecking order, as if speed were some indication of runner quality.

And of course, speed IS the element of effort that is measured in running. We don’t hold athletic championships based on who came last, or first place going to the person who felt the best at the end.

But that obsession with speed, with pace has tipped over into the world of recreational running and it’s a world I decided to remove myself from a few years ago. I decided a long time ago that as I was no Eilish McColgan, fretting about my pace and speed was of no consequence to me, the world or anyone else.

I run because it creates the space in my brain I don’t get doing anything else. It grounds me.

I run because I was lucky enough to be born with a body that enabled me to. One day, I won’t be able to run. Until then, I’m making the most of it.

I run because I love being outside and being in the world.

Back in the day where I’d do a race but my time was slower than the last time I ran that distance, or I’d do Park Run and feel like it had gone well but then see my time was the slowest it had been in a month, well, it made me feel disappointed in myself.

DISAPPOINTED in myself for having got out, done a run, and for some inexplicable reason, I was judging myself on a metric that only I cared about. I mean, how ridiculous is that?

I think a lot of us do it. We beat ourselves up because we aren’t getting quicker, there are other people older than us who are faster, there are people who can run further…

Well - comparison is the thief of joy. And it was taking the joy out of my running.

Which is why I got off that particular bus and hopped onto my own way of running. Where running keeps me healthy, makes me happy and stops me from punching people in the face.

If I talk to other runners about a race, I make an effort to not ask them what their time was, but how they found it. I think that’s a far more important metric.

Which I guess is a really long winded way of getting around to what I was going to talk about today.

My marathon training has been all about metrics. I have an app that tells me what types of run to do and what pace I should be running them at.

Believe me, it’s been an interesting journey as I’ve not paid much attention to pace for such a long time… and I naturally default into one of 2 speeds: Super fast bleeding out of my eyeballs for approximately 10 seconds, or slow amble.

That’s it. Not much of a middle ground there.

Which is why when my app does incremental pace increases during a run, it takes me a while to figure out what that pace feels like.

What I’ve pleasantly found over the last few weeks as I’ve dialled into pace a little more, is that the numbers that looked scary have actually felt and been do-able. And as a result my app has suggested that my speed has increased by 1 minute 50 seconds over the last month.

(It also seems to think I can do a 5km in 23:58 which suggests to me that parts of this app are either broken or it’s smoking a crack pipe).

Anyway, some other numbers that have cheered me up:

Total running distance of my marathon plan is so far at 362 miles. The target at this stage was 389 which considering I was out of action for well over a month isn’t too shabby.

In the last 4 weeks where I HAVE been back on track, I’ve run 125 miles out of a target number of 115 miles.

So while I’m not motivated by numbers, they have their place and in this respect they have given me a bit of confidence that the plan is doing its thing and I just need to keep doing what it tells me to do.

Another number however that IS super exciting, is this one.

£5,090.

That’s the total amount of funds we’ve raised so far for Wyre Forest & South Worcestershire Nightstop and Mediation.

Here’s another number.

26

26 miles have been sponsored by some brilliant businesses that will get a shout out on marathon day.

So there you have it.

Numbers. They tell some of the story… not all of the story, and often not the best parts of the story.

If you want to tip some numbers my way, the fundraising pot is of course still open and happy to receive any donations.

Thank you!