I've been meaning to write a blog post for a few weeks, but felt a bit uninspired. The drudgery of lockdowns and restrictions can feel heavy, even as we begin to come out of them!
Then today I read an article about Ultra races. In general 'ultra' denotes super long distances, but in this case, the race has a twist. There is no set distance. Instead the idea is to run around a loop of 4.16miles within an hour, and repeat it the next hour, and the next, and the next, and the next, until there is only one person left standing. The last person wins, whereas all the others are classed as 'did not finish'. The current record is 75hours, or 312 miles. That's a huge physical impact on your body. At the same time, there is the monotony, and boredom of repeating the same loop, but also the challenge of refueling and resting enough in the inbetween moments to carry you through the next loop. Literally a case of run, eat, sleep, repeat.
More than a year into a global pandemic with lockdowns, and loosening of restrictions, and more lockdowns, and second and third waves, an ultra race like that seems an appropriate analogy.
I am definitely not a runner. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I think running is unnatural for humans (unlike swimming!). But I was more interested in the psychology of these runners. Competitors start the race not knowing how long it is, or when the finish line will come. Actually the 'finish' banner at the end of the loop had been changed to read 'There is no finish'!. That wouldn't be out of place for how many of us are experiencing the pandemic. So how do you keep motivated when you don't know for how long your motivation needs to last, when there aren't any goalposts beyond getting through the next loop?
Those who created their own goalposts to look forward to ("it'll all be over by the summer") have generally been disappointed as dates come and go, and the situation hasn't changed, or has changed in a very different way than expected. Even as the roll out of vaccinations might be a game changer in this country, for anyone with links in other countries and who's lives involve international travel, the picture (or the finish line) is still far from clear. So what do the successful ultra athletes advise?
One runner, who came 'third' after completing 216 miles in 2019 said "We're crippled by the past and the future. What's happening in the next 10 seconds is all that I can control."
It's an extreme example of focusing not on the finish line, but on the race itself. Not on the goal or the prize at the end, but on the present moment, or the very immediate future moments. I think it's that lesson that we are learning in the midst of the pandemic: to focus on the steps right in front of me, rather than to think or plan too far ahead. And to refuel ourselves and rest enough for the next loop. Maybe with that mindset, we might even be able to enjoy the present - in the same way that ultra athletes enjoy a gruelling race without a finish line!
