Mats Offerlind’s Weblog WhoRunsYourLife

I’ve just arrived back home from jogging about 10.5 km and today it was tough, in fact I was tired after doing only half the distance! So what did I do when this happened? Well, I continued to run – maybe at a slightly lower pace, but I continued. I’m absolutely sure that many people would have stopped and walked the rest of the distance because they felt exhausted.

When I started to feel the tiredness and still had half the distance to go, I remembered an occasion when I was out jogging with a friend of mine, some years ago. We were jogging side- by- side when suddenly, he told me that he was exhausted and needed to stop! I was very surprised because I hadn’t noticed any signs that he was even close to being tired!

I stopped anyway, as a friendly gesture, even though I wasn’t tired myself. I could immediately see that his interpretation of being exhausted was very different from mine, so I asked him if he had the taste of blood in his mouth. To my surprise he said, “Of course not!”

I can absolutely confirm that we don’t have the same terms of reference for defining exhaustion – indeed – they’re very far from each other. In my terms you’re not exhausted until you have the taste of blood in your mouth and your legs are close to not bearing you any more. To me, it’s a matter of attitude where you set your own limits for being exhausted, and also for everything else you do in life.

So today when I got really tired after running only half the distance, there was no thought in my mind to stop and walk the rest of the distance because I was simply not exhausted, not according to where I’ve set my limits.

This is not just about running, it applies to all you do in life! So how high have you set your limits and can you still push yourself that bit more?