This matra keeps ASICS FrontRunner Edward Clarkson pushing his boundaries throughout my training and races. Here is why...
It is amazing how powerful your mindset is when it comes to running performance. Let’s take the elite athletes as an example, Roger Bannister was the first person to break the 4-minute mile in 1954, which many people thought was physically impossible. Once Roger's rivals heard of this feat they started to believe in themselves and just 46 days later an Australian runner ran under 4 minutes. This so-called barrier has now been broken by over 1,400 athletes and is seen as the standard for any professional middle-distance male runner.

I am not telling you that you can go out and run a 4-minute mile, but you are a lot more capable than you think. I learnt this through no choice of my own. When I was ill with cancer I was pushed to my mental and physical limit. I had no choice but to fight to stay alive, and that’s not an over-exaggeration. I was put on oxygen in the high dependency unit for 9 days trying to fight off an infection with no immune system. To be honest with you, I was ready to give up but somehow my body kept fighting even though my mind was fragile.
This experience taught me a lesson and has helped my training/performance massively. I learnt that you should never negotiate with yourself about giving up or stopping because you’ve got a lot more left in the tank than you think. Once you take away the option of stopping or quitting, it makes it a lot easier to keep pushing and moving forward.
If you want to learn more about yourself and your limitation you must first push your limits. There is nothing wrong with failure, if you know that you have given it your all.
I was recently reminded of this with the #UpliftingTrails Lesotho expedition. Where 3 FrontRunners and I ran 250KM in 7 days from one border to the other, crossing the mountainous terrain of Lesotho. Before heading out to Lesotho I was nervous that my body would not be able to manage such high volume in such a short time period. It was going to be a new challenge for me, something which I had never done before.
The days were long, tiring, and hot, but at no point did I give myself the opportunity to stop. I knew that I could keep pushing. I kept on reflecting on my past experiences, constantly comparing, and knowing that this was nothing in comparison to what I had been through before. This gave me strength and a lot of self-belief, which in turn helped me to succeed in the challenge and help my fellow teammates complete this awesome challenge.
If you want to learn more about the incredible #UpliftingTrails Lesotho challenge, follow this link to the YouTube documentary. ASICS Trail Running | #UpliftingTrails Border to Border Lesotho - YouTube
ONE last thing, believe in yourself! You’ve got this.
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