Three years ago we were at Disney, and I participated in what is called “The Dopey Challenge”. It involves 4 different races, over 4 days. It starts on day 1 with a 5K run, then 10K run, then 1/2 Marathon, and on the 4th day, a full marathon. 48.6 miles total. You get loaded up on a bus at 3AM each day, and the races officially start at 5:30. You start off in increments of 1000 people, and then it continues every 5 minutes. For that 5K I had not even got to the start line yet at 6:30, and people were already heading back on the buses because they were done! It was an incredibly tough 4 days, but I tell you, the lessons learned from this were huge. Running has taught me many things over the last 44 years that I have been running, but this was like the ultimate in teaching. I have 10 points to make. I will do 5 today, and 5 next week. Here we go!
- Finding a sense of Purpose:
This challenge was the ultimate test of one’s endurance. The marathon, at 26.2 miles, was the biggest challenge I had done before, but I had not run 3 races before it in the past. Completing this took a combination of very well thought out ingredients–training, proper sleep, hydration, strategy so that I would not go out too fast on the early races and have nothing left for the biggest distance on the last day. If I was unwilling to follow through on what I thought was a well-defined plan, I would set myself up for failure.
Life Lesson: Defining a purpose and direction is not easy for all of us, but it still needs to be done. You have to have to have the right ingredients combined in order to be a success at anything in our lives.
2. Break it Down:
If I would have looked at this challenge at only the end point, and not planned for each individual day as it came, I don’t think I would have made it. You have to break it apart in manageable pieces. Everything does not seem at it appears. You can look at something many different ways, and still see something different. If you don’t break it down into manageable pieces, the overall task will be daunting, and you will not do it.
Life Lesson: Every one of us needs to have specific sub goals, and different ways to achieve it. Nobody has one set way. You have to learn to be adaptable, and listen to your body, and everything else around you, in order to achieve your end goal, whatever that may be for you.
3. Fail and Learn early
You don’t just wake up one day and think you have all of the answers. You have to learn to make changes on the fly, and accept it. I had never done this before so I had no idea what I was capable of. Was I training too much? Not enough training? Was I letting my body recover? Was I listening to my body? Was I listening to the doubts in my head? I could go on and on. We all make mistakes, but we have to learn from them.
Life Lesson: We have to be able to analyze our failures, and learn to adapt to our plan for our goals. It is never a straight line to our end goal. There are many up’s and down’s, and zig zags, but eventually we get there. If we do not learn from our mistakes, our own personal history, we will just continue to keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Why would we think that if we did not learn to adapt and change, and we kept our plan and routines the same, that the outcome would ever be any different?
4. Feedback is very important:
Distance running can be both an individual sport, and a group sport. A group sport by the support you get from others. I went on the trip with my family, and our neighbors, who are just an extension of our family. I ran the 5K with Steve Hauck; the 10K I ran alone; the 1/2 marathon also included Sarah, my twin daughters Molly and Megan, and Noah Hauck; and the marathon I ran with Carissa Hauck. I may have done all 4 events, but I had help from all of them as well to keep me going, and finish this. I think if I had done them all alone, the experience would not have been nearly as enjoyable. This support and encouragement is what goes into making me, and each of us, a better runner, or walker, etc.
Life Lesson: While it is important to have independence, and to be strong, it is equally important to have a group of people involved with you who give you support, encouragement, and feedback. This helps not only on your training, but with life’s issues in general. This leads into number 5 for today.
5. Spend time alone and in a group:
Runners are at their best when they can balance their time between solo runs, and group runs. When we are alone, we can lose ourselves in thought. When running with a group, you can learn from your peers, as well as being another ear, and mind, to bounce things off, not just about training, but life in general.
Life Lesson: Sometimes we need to be alone, to gather our thoughts, and to try and figure things out on our own. But, it is important to have other people around to learn from, to get and give support to, and to learn from, and teach to. We do not know everything ourselves. Sometimes we need to hear it from others about what has worked, and what has not, not only with training, but again, life in general. We need to both learn, and teach!
This is my T-shirt from that challenge. One of my favorites! I will bring up another 5 points next week as I continue “Dopey Life Lessons”. We all need to have challenges in order to improve ourselves. The Dopey Challenge was mine. We, and I, just need to make sure that those lessons, and choices, in general, are not “Dopey” decisions! Until next week…Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day of New Streak: #756
