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The Decision Not To Race

2/7/2017

2 Comments

 
At the end of 2016, I built my training and racing plans for the first half of 2017 around the Gold Coast Marathon. I have a desire to run the fastest marathon I can. This goal requires years of consistent effort and action. The Gold Coast Marathon is a fast course, and has a deep field; two elements that I believe are crucial to running the fastest marathon I am capable of.

So the natural question is: How did I get on? I made the difficult decision a couple of weeks ago not to start the event.
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By mid May I was right where I needed and wanted to be. Without going into much detail, the plan for the final eight weeks was to taper into Oceania Trail Championships. Have a hit out and a nice reward for all the hard work I had put in, albeit not particularly specific due to heat, hills and surface. Then spend the remaining six weeks preparing for and sharpening towards the marathon.

My attempt to fry my brain, and destroy my body (not mutually exclusive) at the Oceania Trail Championships really knocked me around. As a result, over the last six weeks I have had a number of small challenges. Nothing serious, though significant enough that with each, I have opted to take a couple of days off training. 

Could I have run through the challenges at today's marathon? Yes, absolutely. Though with my body in a sub-optimal state, it is highly likely that I would have crossed the line in an even less optimal state. I hypothesise that the severity of challenges would intensify and that I probably could have written off the rest of 2017.

But what about the time, energy, and money you invested in the Gold Coast Marathon? Yep, it sucks, but destroying the one body I have would have sucked even more.

I pride myself on looking after my body, and possibly/probably not mutually exclusively (there's that term again) I have not had anything more than a slight niggle for very long time.

The decision not to race was, and always will be, a difficult one; though I would expect any athlete that I coach to have made the same decision.

Putting things into perspective, at the beginning of the year, if you had offered me the opportunity to run in a New Zealand singlet at the Oceania Trail Championships or run the Gold Coast Marathon, I'd have picked the New Zealand singlet every day of the week.
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2 Comments
Andrew Aitken
2/7/2017 10:15:25 pm

Well done James. Practicing what you preach. The psychology of the decision is complex, but in the end flogging the horse until it's dead does nothing for the horse. Our bodies are that metoforical horse. I salute you for your decision, hard as it must always be too make. Too few people think of their bodies like you do, unique and irreplaceable. Well done.

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Sarah
3/7/2017 01:33:33 pm

I'm not at all at a competitive level just a lover of the adventure. Saturday was a tough day for me though, the Goat entries opened and I had to put my head before my heart for this year. I know my back won't be fused by December so I know it's not best for my body but man my heart wanted to enter. Last year I did it needing the cages and the fusion but wouldn't give it up (surgeon said couldn't get any worse as it was at worst), this year is about healing then next year it's about getting back into the adventure.

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