What do an Ultra Marathon and Setting up an Online Business have in common?
- Most people will never attempt to do either
- Most people who do try will not succeed
- Both are so far out of most people’s comfort zones that they will think you are insane if you do either
- I am doing both
Start of 2013
I wanted to share a story with you all. I started out at the beginning of 2013 very unfulfilled and looking for something.I had a business that I had wanted to set up for years(driving school) but I wasn’t excited.
I had started out to figure out how to market this business online which started me on a journey that I could never have imagined. I wanted to market my company online and then I just wanted to make some money online and all along this journey I was trying to figure out my WHY. Why do I want this?
I always had goals but they never really meant that much to me. Like a lot of people I wanted the big house and the fast car and lots of money but didn’t really know why.
Obviously I wanted them because that meant success but…..did it really?
I never had any emotional attachment to a goal, like how I would feel when I got it or what it would mean if I got it.
The Idea
So this year one of my friends that I do some training with said ‘Do you fancy doing a race?’ So of course I said ‘yeah sounds good, what race are we doing?’
‘An Ultra Marathon’ was the answer.
Now for those of you who don’t know what an Ultra Marathon is, an Ultra Marathon is any distance longer than a Marathon and in this case a marathon and a half.
40 miles/ 65 kilometres. So of course I said yeah let’s give it a go.
The numbers didn’t really mean anything to me at this point other than it was a long distance to run.
So I started running and if we are being honest, I wasn’t particularly enjoying it.
Let me put some context in here for you. Up until that point in time the farthest I had ever run was 10km/6miles.
As the time was going by I really wasn’t enjoying running any more than when I started. So I decided one day to see how far I could run.
I ran 11 miles that day and it was really tough going but something changed that day on my last mile or two back to my house. I realised that this was possible. It was actually possible for me to run 40 miles.
This taught me that you don’t have to believe something at the start, you just have to make a start and keep going.
So progress to date:
- Farthest distance: 18 miles
- Time taken: 3 hours
- I haven’t eaten or drank anything when I have been out running so far(intelligent I know)
- I have taken the last 2 weeks off with a chest infection
Ultra Marathon is next Sunday.
I can’t wait for it. It is completely unknown territory but that’s the whole point. It’s unrealistic and a bit crazy but I wouldn’t really be running 40 miles for logical reasons would I.
I’ll let you all know next week how I get on…..