Get outside your comfort zone

Now I know that I'm supposed to be telling you how I became a runner and trust me I'm getting to it, but along the way I had to keep pushing myself harder and harder to improve.

Getting outside your comfort zone is all about seizing an opportunity to do something exceptional, when it sits well outside your normal skill or confidence level. I know that sounds scary and to be honest it is, but seriously if you want to achieve something exceptional you have to become exceptional.

"To the victor the spoils, but I won more than I realised."

In an earlier post I told you how important it is to say yes when an opportunity comes along. Well this is how that story ends. Kind of.

Its not really the end.

Just read on it will all make sense.

I hope.

So having said yes to taking part in the Strongman Run in Germany, I met up with the rest of TeamGB. The whole event was sponsored by Fishermans Friend and hosted at the Nurburgring. It consisted of 2 laps of a 7 mile course with 15 obstacles on each lap. These obstacles were insane, check out the website to see what I'm talking about.

I'll go into detail on the race later but what I want you to understand at this point is that I have never done anything like this before. Saying yes to opportunities and taking part in giant assault courses is not my norm. The rest of TeamGB seemed to be accomplished athletes compared to me and a few looked like they could have been body doubled in 300! I was seriously starting to feel out of my depth.

But I took the opportunity to do something exceptional. To do something new and diffficult and give it everything. I did something which I, like most people, rarely do and I believed that I could do the seemingly impossible.....

....and I finished! And like all experiences you have there is an opportunity to learn something.
With all the races I had done and the training I had done for running long distance, I had never thought I could stretch myself to a new challenge. I had become happy with the pace of my progress and got stuck inside my comfort zone.

But completing this event with TeamGB made me realise that I can do more than just run. We are all capable of achieving great things. You just need a little passion and a goal. So don't set small targets. Aim for the stars when you dare to dream and work hard to get there. 

If you believe that nothing is impossible, then pretty soon impossible will be nothing.

A few things made this experience exceptional to me. Firstly it was my first race of this sort, which always makes it special. Secondly it was the sheer size of the thing. Standing on a racetrack singing before the start with 13000 other people will stick with me forever. Also the sponsor sure know how to put on an event. Great organisation, good challenge and superb goody bag.

But thirdly and most importantly was the effect of working with inspirational people. People who inspire you are perhaps the most powerful catalyst to improving yourself. I've met lots of inspirational people, but that's a story for another time.