Crying.
Do you remember the scene in A League of Their Own where Tom Hanks paces in the dugout trying to console a crying baseball player?
“There is no crying in baseball”
At times, I have wanted to say the same thing while running. Deep with emotion, there are times where some runners have wanted to cry. I am not talking about crossing the finish line and crying with the emotion of a completed race. There are a few occasions where in the middle of a tough run, emotion bubbles.
Maybe it’s when you are fighting a running cut off time? Maybe it is when you are cramping and your shins are throbbing, yet you have realized you still have another 50k (or 5k) to go.
Maybe there is no identifiable reason…you just want to cry.
Often running peels the calloused veneer off our hearts and digs deep into the emotional vat. As we are running, we are stripped of our names, associations, and identities. The truest version of who we are in that moment emerges. We feel vulnerable, exposed, or even abandoned. In those moments, embrace who you are and keep moving forward and know that ‘this to shall pass.’
Pressing Through the Tears
1. Don’t Stop.
To stop to embrace your tears will only cause more to go. Continuing to move forward expends energy which help divert the emotion from the tears.
2. Turn the Music Off.
Music enhances every emotion. Sometimes the tears keep flowing because Journey is playing on the ipod. Eliminate the music and get down to the core of the crying. Embrace the fullness of it.
3. Identify the Root.
Look around and identify the conditions you are in. Maybe its rain and you feel exposed and vulnerable which is mirroring your soul. Maybe they are breaking down the finish line and you feel abandoned. Maybe people are passing you and this causes you to feel weak.
It is in these emotion that we are all stripped of image management and we earn a PHD in Mental Sharpness. Understand, rarely are these race emotions real. You are not weak, you are strong. You are competing only against yourself. Know one is looking down on you for your placement in the race. In fact most on lookers or even those passing you are celebrating your courage to toe the starting line. Keep moving forward.
Racing against yourself will give you the greatest competition of your life. Don’t back down. Peel away the insecurities and let the best version of you emerge.
Sometimes, forward is fast.
JAS
