Don’t try to win at your hobby (running)
UTMB stories, preparing for an ultra next week and the favourite books of runners
So I recently came across this quote by Brad Stulberg: „Don’t try to win at your hobby“ from his book Groundedness. Do you agree with it?
1. UTMB Storytime and why we run
If you followed the trail tunning „Superbowl/Worldcup“ at UTMB in Chamonix last week, this quote is NOT true for Vincent Bouillard, who, despite having a full-time job at Hoka and not being a sponsored athlete, won the 100 miles (170 km) around Mont Blanc in the third fastest time ever. What a story!
Given that most of us are not Vincent and not in a position to win UTMB, we probably shouldn’t try to win at our hobby.
I run to exercise and balance out stress in other areas of life. Trail running is the time that solely belongs to me, where I connect with nature and recharge.
I recently did a poll on my Instagram, and it appears that this is similar for many of you:
The tricky thing is that running can still be a sport in which you want to achieve a certain kind of success, whether by setting a specific time for a specific distance or participating in a specific event like a marathon. You sign up, you buy all the gear, and you train. And if all goes well, this is amazing! I experienced that earlier this year when I achieved a long-time goal of running a sub-three-hour marathon.
But what if things don’t go according to plan? What should give us happiness, freedom, and balance in life can become a source of stress and frustration, even spreading into our already stressful lives. Ouch!
2. Preparing for my first ultra mountain race next week
I’m currently in a situation where I registered for my first real ultra race, which is happening next week. 60 km and 5000 vertical meters through the Austrian Alps. And you know how it is: a week before the race your knees start to not feel all right. Great.
For me, success here would be reaching the finish line. But would it be a failure to drop out before?
I came to the conclusion: no. Already the preparation for the race led me to many amazing trail runs in the mountains this year. On race day, I will still start with the sunrise and enjoy the first kilometres. If, at some point, common sense dictates that I should stop to avoid a big injury, I’ll have to stop.
For most of us, running is a hobby. We win everything by just showing up. But we don’t actually lose anything if we don’t reach our running goals. We can try again. And again. The only time we lose? When running becomes a source of frustration, and we don’t want to go on that casual run anymore. That’s dangerous. But not missing a finish time in a race or dropping out of a race. That’s just a good story to tell.
We don’t run to win. And we shouldn’t try to. We already win because we run. No matter how fast or far. Just running.
How do you see it?
3. Favorite community books for runners
All of this reflection only came because I read the book by Brad Stulberg as an addition to my running. So, as a little bonus to this week’s post, find below a list of favourite books about running that the community over on my Instagram recommended a while ago. I haven’t read all of them yet, but I’m currently reading „What I talk about when I talk about running“ by Haruki Murakami, which I can only further recommend!
Do you have any book recommendations for runners?
Thanks for reading! This means a lot. Hope you have great Sunday and a good start into the new week!
Simon