Unhealthy Comparisons

I hate to admit it, but I am definitely one of those people who love to make unhealthy comparisons. I wish (and I really mean it), that I could be someone who looks at their race results and thinks ‘Awesome, I ran a great race’; instead I  always think ‘Oh man, I am so slow, there were 2739 people faster than me’. This says two things to me- 1) I need to run smaller races, and 2) I need to stop being so negative. It is a bad trait! I am working really hard to find the small wins in my training and celebrate them, even if to someone else it would be a fail.

I know it’s not just me, I see and hear people all the time say things like ‘My half marathon time is rubbish, it’s over 3 hours!’ Excuse me? You just ran a half marathon- you are legendary. I don’t care if it took 4 hours or 1 ½, 21kms is no joke. Once I had a friend say (and I am sure she didn’t mean it this way) ‘I want to run a half marathon but my boyfriend says if I can’t do it in less than 2 hours there is no point in even trying’. This was about a week after my 1^st half marathon which I completed in 2:41:57. It broke my heart to think what I had achieved wasn’t important because I didn’t do it fast enough.

When I ran my last triathlon of the season I wiped 10 minutes off my time- which in retrospect is AMAZING. All I thought when I saw the results was that I was still 10-15 minutes off the top ladies in my age group. Thinking like this can’t be healthy. So I want to change my way of thinking and be more positive.

I solemnly swear from this moment on, I will not compare myself to other people, only to myself. I will strive to achieve my best, and not someone else’s. If you can run one minute longer than you could yesterday- you are a champion.

My first half marathon- a win regardless of finishing time!

Do you find yourself making unhealthy comparisons? How do you stay motivated?

Ash J