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WHY RUN A MARATHON?
"I
asked Mark Mathews, Osteopath and founder of the Sunflower Trust for
children with learning difficulties (www.sunflowertrust.com) why he had
decided to run the New York Marathon on 4 Nov in his sixtieth year. I
have to admit that I was not quite prepared for the answer which I have
summarised below."
Sue Edwin (3/9/07)
"There is a short
answer and a long answer. The short one is to raise funds for the
Sunflower Trust, lose some weight and get fit. The real answer is
something of a challenge and I am still in the process of discovering
it. I was pondering this very question while on one of my long runs
recently. This is what came to mind:
To be successful in whatever you wish in your life you first have to have:
1. Self belief
2. A "can do" attitude
3. A clear idea of your goal
4. Plan of action and the will to bring it about
The first three of these needs are just in your head and according to Stuart G Goldsmith account for 75% of success.
Tony Robbins success formula says that:
1. You must know what you want
2. Make a decision
3. Take massive action
4. Monitor what happens
5. If it is not producing the result you want, learn from it, change what you are doing.
6. Keep on doing this until you get the result you want.
As
a practitioner I regard myself as being a teacher, a facilitator and a
healer. Words that are spoken without a true experience of what they
really mean are empty, and without power. Leadership and healing take
place within the context of a relationship.
Power is the ability
to create a change. Discover more about yourself and what it is to be
a human being requires that you use your muscles and are stretched. We
have many kinds of muscles: physical muscles, mental muscles,
emotional muscles, physiological muscles, spiritual muscles. If they
are to be developed and we are to realise the full potential of what we
can do with this precious miracle we call life; they all need to be
exercised.
We only grow as human beings by stretching the
envelope of our awareness and abilities, discovering more of the innate
gifts that we have been given and using them. The mind needs to be
exercised as does the body. What you don't use, you lose. A directed
mind is the most powerful tool we have. We have limited resources of
time, energy and money. You can have anything you want but not
everything. Life management is about sorting out your priorities,
making decisions and following them through.
To undertake a
marathon is a kind of metaphor for all of these things. I am finding
that the preparation for the event is a journey in itself. It is a big
undertaking. Starting from scratch, most people will have to train for
at least 8 hours a week for several months. You have to make a lot of
sacrifices. That is a day's work, a day's income, less time with
family and friends. It requires a lot of discipline, determination and
will power. It is not a lot of fun getting up and running early in the
morning in the dark, wet and cold.
There is quite a lot of
science and theory involved. It has all been worked out. Anyone can
run a marathon if they train correctly. You need to monitor your heart
rate. Systematically and repeatedly do the right preparation and
exercise.
You really can push the envelope and find things
that were very hard or impossible become much easier. If you over do
it, you can do yourself harm. It requires personal awareness,
sensitivity and good personal judgement. If you don't believe it
possible you are unlikely to achieve it. Faith and hope for a positive
outcome is a prerequisite for achieving most things.
You cannot
perform well unless you conform to a healthy lifestyle. That means
getting enough sleep, understanding some basic biochemistry, physiology
and nutritional science, eating sensibly, maintaining healthy
relationships as well as expanding your mind and body while keeping
your business going.
There are times when I have felt like I
have hit brick walls. You just want to stop and give up; it is all too
hard and painful. Why the hell am I putting myself through all of
this? Under these circumstances sometimes wonderful things happen. It
is as though other parts of your brain, thinking and perception, come
to your aid. You may suddenly experience exhilarating highs and deep
feelings of pleasure and joy. Another part of your awareness opens up.
It might be triggered by anything. It could be a beautiful flower, the
glimpse of a badger, a hedgehog, kingfisher, butterfly or a beautiful
sunset as you run through the countryside.
It is an amazing
feeling to be a part of this mysterious universe and supported by its
elaborate ecological web. Three miles further on you realise that you
are running quite comfortably and you wonder about what is this
experience we call pain?
Above all, I feel that it has helped me
to put things into a more realistic perspective. When you have been
running for two or three hours, you truly value the feeling of a cool
breeze or shower of rain to cool you down. You gulp down the water,
really appreciate its true life supporting qualities and enjoy every
mouthful.
Food is even more tasty and pleasurable as is a good
night's sleep. The companionship from friends and family are
appreciated even more. Once these basic needs have been met the rest
is all in your head. By all means enjoy your indulgences but in a
world that is insanely driven by wanton destruction of our life support
system to prop up materialistic, wasteful, unsustainable demands for
physical gratification through consumerism that can never be
satisfied, you are woken up to what is really important.
All
our good feelings come from within us. They are not what we have or
what we do; they are the result of values and associations which we
attach to them. We know that the unconscious mind cannot tell reality
from illusion. It responds to everything as if it were true.
Reading
a book, thinking, dreaming, using one's imagination can give one just
as much pleasure. It is not what you have; it is what you relate to in
your own mind that determines how you feel. Your imagination is a
boundless resource. You have the power to associate anything to
anything. It costs nothing and does not leave any carbon footprint
behind.
My 2007 New York Marathon - Mark Mathews
A
few months ago when I was training for the above event I asked myself
some questions about what I was doing and why I was doing it. These
are some of my impressions of the actual event.
The memory that will
always give me a good feeling is the supportive, enthusiastic welcome,
friendliness and encouragement that I and my 38,000 accompanying
runners received along the way. We had arrived at this metropolis from
all over the world. Ranging in age from 18 to over 90 years, most of us
were not racing each other. In my case it was one of the sixtieth year
personal challenges that I had set for myself. I was just going to do
my best. My personal goal was to complete the run in 4 hours 45 minutes.
This
event was brilliantly organised and coordinated by the many agencies,
involving thousands of volunteers, road closures, firemen, police and
hundreds of different businesses. There were over 25,000 men and woman
including Paula Radcliffe ahead of me. I was at least two hours behind
the real runners as I jogged my way along. The two million spectators
who lined the streets were themselves making a marathon effort:
smiling, cheering, happy faces gesticulating, clapping and encouraging
every one of us on. In each of the five city boroughs through which we
passed, hoards of well wishers lined the pavements.
I was glad that
I had purchased a marker pen the day before and written my name on the
front of my vest. Thousands cheered me on "Come on Mark!", "You're
looking good!", "Keep it up!", "You can do it!"
The first 16 miles
of smiles and laughter were ecstatic and easy. My grinning muscles were
quite as tired as my legs. This was a melting pot of Americans in New
York. People of every size shape colour and age all cheering us on as
we ran along the streets, through the subways and over the five
bridges. Every now and then there were bands playing: jazz bands, rock
bands, bag pipers, steel bands; you name it. I must have touched
thousands of people as they reached out their hands in friendship as I
passed. There were also many outstanding personalities with whom I was
running.
One English laughing policeman with his truncheon seemed
to have some funny things to say to all he passed. A one legged athlete
with a spring like prosthetic, left me standing. There were elderly
grand mothers, grandfathers, giants, midgets, the fat, the thin, the
good, the bad and the ugly: a colourful flowing river of humanity all
sharing this particular challenge for their own reasons and raising
millions for good causes. You could hear the tread of millions of foot
prints; a kind of ritual celebration of international peace and good
will. Add to this the amazing views of the Manhattan sky line from some
of the bridges, the helicopters, aeroplanes and zeppelins flying around
and you'll appreciate that it would have been hard not to have been
moved.
Police men all in black, sharp shooters, on the tops of
buildings overlooking the corrals where we all had to assemble early at
the start, were a reminder of the times in which we live. When I think
about the excesses of this modern empire, I am pleased to be reminded
about what an amazing triumph of civilization and decency it is for
them to have galvanised together such a rainbow coalition of races and
cultures in one place, all proud to count themselves as Americans and
turning up in such large numbers to welcome and encourage such an
international gathering of runners through their streets.
Keith
Anderson, my internet trainer who I had never met until I reached New
York, was quite right in saying that the real race only begins at
sixteen miles. At about that point after crossing the east River and
Roosevelt Island on the Queensboro Bridge, you reach First Avenue. It
is a straight road, about four miles long, just full of runners like
specks of sand as far as you could see.
It is here that my legs
started to feel tired. They began to exhibit some signs of cramp. I
still had ten miles to go. I made a point of drinking more water at
every water station along the way and walked a little while I was
drinking it. The crowds of onlookers were as encouraging as ever but I
found that I no longer had the energy to smile back, touch hand and
engage with them as I had earlier. I had to give as much attention as I
could to the job in hand. The mile markers seemed to be getting further
apart. Battling with the pain and discomfort, the time taken to get
from one to the next took longer and the hilly inclines felt much
steeper. Along with thousands of others I was forced to slow to a fast
march up some of them; the effort of trying to dodge around and between
all the walkers was too much.
With two miles to go, I looked at my
watch. It was still just possible for me to complete the run in the
time I had set myself as a goal. I said to myself "Come on Mark! You've
come this far, you have the good wishes and support of all of these
amazing people and those who have sponsored you. You've already run
hundreds of miles in training; you cannot give up on all of this now!
OK?" I realised that I just had to put up with the pain, dig deep and
keep going.
Going round the last bend in Central Park there was
still another 400 yards to go. There, like a mirage in the distance I
could see the finish. In one last effort, I pulled out all I could.
Thank God that I did. There was only a short time to spare. I finished
in 4 Hrs, 44 Mins and 36 seconds.
Due to the generosity of many good
people, probably including you, The Sunflower Trust has already managed
to raise over four thousand pounds in sponsorship money. I achieved one
of my goals. The other was to raise £10,000 in sponsorship. Please see
if you can find it within yourself, from the comfort of your homes and
businesses, to dig deep and enable me to meet my second goal. More
children who are in need of help but do not have the means will then be
able to benefit.
If you are still with me, thank you so much for your kind attention.
Yours sincerely
Mark
You can find out more about the Sunflower Trust: www.sunflowertrust.com
You can send cheques to: The Sunflower Trust, 10 Guildford Park Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7ND.
Or log on to: www.justgiving.com/markmathewsnewyorkmarathon
Mark O. Mathews B.Sc. (Hon.), D.O., M. I.C.A.K. Reve Pavilion Natural Health Clinic.
2A Guildford Park Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7ER
www.revepavilion.net
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