5 things that my 5 marathon challenge in January have taught me..

5 things that my 5 marathon challenge in January have taught me..

Outside Aras an Uachtaran

I blogged earlier this month (January 2014) about how I was hoping to overcome some obstacles to my goals in 2014 (mainly exhaustion due to our gorgeous newborn baby!)..

I’m delighted to report that things have worked out very well. Despite lots of rain and wind I’ve managed to walk the distance of 5 marathons (210kms approx over the month of January) while out walking with my newborn daughter Aimee. 

The 5 marathons have been fun. My heart rate has lowered (a sign of improved fitness), I’m feeling a lot less stressed and I’m feeling like anything is possible because I’ve just finished doing something hard. I’ve a newfound respect for Gerry Duffy and his incredible 32 marathons in 32 days which really inspired me a few years back and yet I feel like doing my own challenge like that is now even more attainable. 

I wanted to share about some of the things I’ve learned or that this process reminded me of. 

1.   The goal that I really wanted to do felt too good to be true. 

In my heart I wanted to spend time with my daughter, show up for my lovely wife Cara during the first few months of Aimee’s life and yet I also wanted to exercise. I thought that showing up for Cara meant hours of minding the baby at home but once I was willing to suspend disbelief and think about some solutions then the idea popped into my head. Why not wrap up baby Aimee very well and get out walking which gives Cara space, me exercise and time with Aimee. 

2.  My initial goal was so big and overwhelming that it felt ridiculously unattainable. 

Dublin Marathon Finish 2012

So, in case you didn’t read my initial blog. While walking with me newborn baby on New Years Day I was thinking about my goals for 2014 feeling utterly exhausted, overwhelmed and unenthusiastic from those first few torturous precious weeks with a newborn. When I asked myself what I’d really love to be doing the answer was typically outlandish. I’d ideally like to do every endurance event I’ve ever done again in 2014 (7 marathons, 3 Ironman Triathlons, dozens of smaller triathlons etc). A month later I’ve got the first 5 marathons done. I suddenly feel like anything is possible and that although my goal still feels ridiculous that breaking it down into daily ‘bite sized’ chunks makes it doable. 

3.  There will be problems, distractions and tempting excuses! 

Not long after my last blog (approx halfway through January) I started to realise that 5 marathons in January, although a stretch, was very doable. There were some initial challenges like making sure that Aimee was perfectly wrapped up and figuring out how long we could walk between feeds etc. As soon as the end goal felt like it was possible a couple of distractions came up. An opportunity arose to buy a bike which on the surface of it helps the bigger picture goal but I missed a few walks from taking my eyes off the prize. I had also forgotten just how easy it is come up with perfectly logical reasons to not exercise (even when the Irish wind eventually dies down and the rain stops for a while!) 

Finally, on the evening we were going to close off marathon 3 someone we were walking quite late in the evening and some boy racer types thought it would be a good idea to throw eggs at pedestrians. One of them lobbed an egg at me and missed Aimee’s head by a couple of inches. The egg bounced off intact and no harm was done but it was a reminder that there is a risk to Aimee in this and it was tempting to wrap her up and give up on the whole process. It felt like a kind of spiritual attack on the dream - the purpose to make me give up. 

 4.   People want to help

With Cara (and Fauna the dog) at Achill ½ marathon

Soon after I started walking with Aimee Cara started to encourage us to get out and has been encouraging ever since. Then when I wrote a blog about it people were very encouraging which also gave me a boost. One of the most encouraging things was when a random stranger came up to me in Phoenix Park to encourage me. He could see Aimee strapped on to my chest in her sling and he just wanted to encourage me to keep investing time in her and say well done for doing so! Happy Days! Although over the last few months a degree of discipline has been necessary to get out the door some days this kind of encouragement from people has helped me to stay excited about the goal. 

5.   Once I have committed problems are solvable. 

I remember when I was ‘thinking about’ getting fit and losing a lot of excess weight a few years ago. I thought and talked myself out of doing it so many times. I used to say that I’d start the process of getting fit, losing weight, eating healthy etc either tomorrow or on Monday. Inevitably something came up the next day or on Monday and the cycle continued. I’ve found the opposite to be true too though. All sorts of problems come up when I finally commit to do something and get started. 

Initially I needed a ‘back up team’ - someone to call in case something went wrong and I needed to get Aimee home fast but the whole idea was for Cara to get a rest so I wanted her to be able to turn her phone off and sleep/rest while I was out. We managed to get our hands on a free sim card which she put into her phone so the only person who was going to ring or text her was me. This was a simple fix to a simple problem but there have been lots of others we’ve been able to sort out since. It is nice to be using my creativity to come up with solutions to enable me to thrive rather than the excuses that bind me to obesity.