Don’t listen to the critics (there are many)

How many times have you said I’ve run my first 10k/ half marathon /marathon, and the first question is “so what time did you run it in?” You answer and the person isn’t really listening but they proceed to tell you that they ran 10 miles in a hour in their prime…

My first marathon was 4:15, because it wasn’t the magic sub 4hr time, and I had a lot of people proceeding to devalue my achievement, whilst telling me their best marathon times.

Let’s get some context!

The average finishing time is approx. 4hr 21min, and I’ve gone on to run a sub 4 hour marathon which is an achievement, it is cool, but in context…

Dennis Kimetto set a new world record in the marathon 2:02:57 in 2014. Even if your ‘competitive’ about times, if your not close to this time you are slow. I don’t care if you run 3:05, your not close to winning the world major events. Even the time that Paula Radcliffe ran in her last London 2015 marathon in retirement, most mortals couldn’t come close to that time.

The other extreme is in 2002 Lloyd Scott wore a 110lb deep-sea diving suit. It took him five days and eight hours to complete the course, breaking the world record for the slowest marathon time.

I’ve learnt that you can’t solely judge your version of success on what other people think. Even if you achieve your goal, there will always be critics that will devalue your achievement, and tell you your not as good as them. Regardless if it takes you 2 hours or 5 days to complete a marathon, you’ve still covered 26.2 miles.

Don’t let other people devalue you or your achievements!