Welcome to Running to Myself. I’m Trisha Stanton. Life and mindset coach, running coach and host of Running to Myself.
16 years ago I ran my first marathon. The process of training for that first race changed my life. This podcast is my opportunity to share some of the lessons I have learned about running and life through the many ups and downs of life during my almost 2 decades of running and learning more about who I am. It is my hope that through my stories maybe you will see a bit of yourself as well and find a nugget of truth and inspiration to take with you. Let’s get started.
Welcome to Episode 11 What’s your superpower?
From the year 2008 through 2015 my running life was on an upward trajectory. Starting from zero in my mid 30s turned out to be a pretty sweet deal. I hadn’t been athletic in any way prior to that, so I didn’t face the decline from aging that often happens to people who have been athletes in their younger years. ( I have since been taken down a notch or two by the aging process but that’s an episode for another time) Since I was just starting out, I could only improve as I learned more and put more time and miles in. And that is exactly what happened. And boy was it fun. Each marathon I trained for was an opportunity to reach for a new goal. After my third marathon I set my sights on the golden ticket…a BQ. In the running world, BQ stands for Boston Qualifier. Most marathons allow you to pay your fee and sign up. The more popular races like Chicago and New York now have a lottery system to get into the race each year. Boston requires you to run a qualifying time in an approved qualifier marathon before applying for entry. A qualifying time does not guarantee you a spot in the race. During the years I was trying to qualify, in the age group I was in at the time you actually needed to run about 6 minutes faster than your qualifying time to get into the race. Now there are people I know who are just so fast that they run a qualifying time with every marathon they run. For most people, that is not the case. I have known people who have spent years chasing a BQ time. For the average marathon runner, it’s a stretch goal, not a given.
This is the kind of challenge that is perfect for me. I love it. Reaching this goal is not about beating someone else. It is simply about achieving a time standard. I thrive in this type of environment where my goal is to improve my performance, and success is measured by a time standard. I am not against someone else, rather I am focused on my individual improvement.
When I set my sights on trying for a Boston Qualifier, I knew I would need to be about 20 minutes faster than my previous marathon. I wasn’t confident that I would be able to achieve that, but I had no reason not to try. I had improved by about that much between my first and third marathons, and I knew that I was new enough to the sport that I was still able to make pretty big jumps in improvement.
If you listened to last week’s episode about Jacki and I racing each other to the finish, what I am about to tell you isn’t going to make sense at first. But I can assure you that it is 100% true. Just know that marathons are a different experience (at least they are for me) than shorter races. I may have been racing to the finish during 5, 10k, races and maybe even half marathons, but marathons were just about me and managing my own body. There is too much that can go sideways on you during 26.2 miles to be worrying about how fast someone else is. When it came to marathons, One of the things I knew about myself as a runner is that I was not a strong finisher. That was true at the time in most areas of my life as well. I would begin a project, get about 75% finished and then lose interest. This happened a little bit at the end of marathons too. Once I got to the 26 mile mark everything inside of me would say-oh, that’s enough, you can slow down now, there’s only .2 miles to go you’re basically finished anyway. You did it! Great job and shut down mode would begin. This is the actual opposite of what should happen at the end of a race! And if you are cutting it close with a time cutoff it can very easily be the difference between reaching your goal or not. And I don’t know about you, but after 26 miles, I am bone tired! I have been ignoring the tiredness for between 3-5 miles already depending on the weather conditions that day.
It is possible to physically train yourself to become stronger at the finish. I knew this. I also knew that my problem was more mental than physical. It was my BRAIN telling my body that it was fiiiine to downshift and just roll into the finish. And during my previous marathons that was somewhat true. I wasn’t facing challenging cutoff times prior to trying for a BQ. I was more or less just trying to finish and able to see improvement each time because I was so new to the sport that all additional experience led to improvement. Because I knew that I was not a strong finisher and my brain was telling my body it was no big deal, I was able to use what I knew about myself to come up with a training strategy that best supported me in solving this problem. I decided the best way to improve my performance at the finish was to focus less on getting better at the actual finish. Thoughts are powerful. My brain will win an argument with my body every single time UNLESS my body is stronger in the situation than my brain. Hear me out for a minute. I knew that if I was as tired as I had been during my other marathons when I approached the finish, that my brain would easily convince my body to slow down and that would mean not getting my BQ, BUT if I wasn’t as tired, I wouldn’t even have the thoughts about slowing down once I got close to the finish line. The key was to improve my overall fitness so that I would not be as weary at the end of the race so that I wouldn’t have to battle my thoughts while in my weakest state. I understood my weakness in this area and was able to use my strength in another area to do something about it. Self awareness became my superpower and I got my BQ by the skin of my teeth on the first try.
Life Coach Connection: Self awareness can be your superpower too. Developing self awareness can benefit all areas of your life. You can begin now by using what you know about yourself to get better results in your life.
Did I need to work on being a better finisher, yes. My self awareness in this area allowed me to overcome what could have otherwise been an obstacle to reaching my goals. Knowing that I had that specific weakness gave me the opportunity to look at my strengths and come up with a plan that would still get me the results I wanted. I was able to figure out that in order for me to be a stronger finisher and overcome my desire to just throw it all away once I saw the finish line, I needed to be so well conditioned and trained for the pace and length of the race that I had enough energy left in the tank at the end of a race. I needed to give myself a physical advantage so that my body wouldn’t have to argue with my mind at the end of a race.
As a coach, I most commonly see clients begin their coaching journey with one of the 3 levels of self awareness I am going to share with you today. Everyone has the ability to develop self awareness no matter where they begin and mindset coaching puts clients on the fasttrack to using self awareness as a superpower.
Think of self awareness as being on a spectrum from not at all self aware to so self aware that you are able to use what you know about yourself to accomplish anything you set out to.
As a former 5th grade teacher, I can’t help but picture a number line.
At the far end of the spectrum or number line is the
Level 1 is unaware-this is the person who doesn’t really spend any time trying to understand how they operate. A person who is unaware is held back by their own weaknesses and unable to capitalize on their natural strengths because they don’t have a good understanding of them. This lack of self awareness filters into relationships as well because part of self awareness is understanding how we relate to other people and how our actions impact others. This person often feels like life is happening TO them.
Level 2 self aware but stuck. This person is somewhat aware of their strengths and weaknesses but thinks there is nothing they can do about them. They often say things like: That’s just the way I am. This person lets their weaknesses hold them back. They aren’t really mad about it. They just accept it. This is a person who is stuck, but doesn’t realize they are stuck.
Then there is the level 2 person who is aware of their weaknesses and uses them against themself. This person really beats themself up over their perceived shortcomings. Rather than work on areas of weakness, they use them against themself. They are stuck and then know they are stuck. This person tends to not see their strengths, just their weaknesses. And they see any and all areas where they have a weakness as insurmountable.
Level 3 uses self awareness as a superpower. This person is very self aware. They know their strengths and their weaknesses. They use this knowledge wisely. They put the knowledge to action. A person who sees self awareness as a superpower is less likely to label their weaknesses as negative. They are more prone to work to develop and strengthen those areas and to use their strengths to compensate. A person who uses their self awareness as a superpower is not held back. Obstacles are puzzles to solve, not problems that hold them back.
Take some time to evaluate where you might be in relation to the 3 levels I have presented you with. In what way can you use self awareness as YOUR superpower in your life this week?
One more thing before I let you go…September is National Recovery Month. The purpose is to increase public awareness surrounding mental health and addiction recovery.
People who battle addiction have people who love them and those people, the families, friends and loved ones experience a unique pain because of this disease. Last week, I released a free workshop video specifically designed to address the unique needs of those who have a loved one with SUD. If you or someone you know would benefit from this content, please direct them to my Facebook group The Simple Truth Coaching or my website. I have also added the link to the video to the show notes for today’s episode for easy access.
That’s all I have for you today, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Running to Myself. You can find previous episodes on apple podcasts and spotify or on my website www.trishastanton.com. New episodes are released each Monday. You can subscribe on Apple or Spotify to automatically receive each new episode as it comes out.
If you know someone who you think would enjoy this podcast, please share it with them! I will be back next week to share a little more about my training journey on the road to discovering my truest self.
In the meantime, if you want to know more about my coaching program or have questions about one on one coaching or life coaching in general, please visit my website at www.trishastanton.com or my Facebook Group The Simple Truth Coaching. I would love to hear from you!
Have a great week and remember, Mindset Matters!
