Running is very seldom pretty!  It’s hard work and often no matter how hard you try, you still seem to look and feel like you’ve been dragged through a bush backwards.   Does this sound familiar to you?  That’s OK!  As long as you can get from start to finish, it really doesn’t matter how you look or how ‘ugly’ the journey was.  I usually refer to runs that I have found particularly tough as being ‘not pretty’ because invariably it has caused me to huff and puff and have been a real struggle.  There are runs that have reduced me to tears, where I have questioned my abilities and my reasons for being out there.  The thing is, these are the runs that have taught me more about myself that the ‘easy’ runs, the ones where everything goes according to plan and where I feel like I could carry on running all day.

I believe that if you can accept that it doesn’t have to be pretty, you will be open to trying that little bit harder to achieve your goals.  For me, the most important running training is plain and simple running, no matter how ‘ugly’ it may seem from time to time.  Don’t be put off by ‘bad runs’.  Remember, bad runs are good runs!  The most important thing about these bad runs is that you finished them.  That is pure ‘goody bag’ stuff!

Looking at it another way, I always find my first race of the year (Bay to Bay 30km) an incredibly tough run, moreso because I am usually just getting back on the road, am carrying extra weight from the holiday season, and still pretty unfit.  So for me Bay to Bay is never pretty but I know that if I want to run the 2 Oceans and Comrades  later in the year, that finishing Bay to Bay is most important.

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Key words: It doesn’t have to be pretty, running
Internal links: goody bag, bad runs are good runs
External links: Official Comrades Marathon website

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