Motivation: how to find it and keep it
When you want to run, but you also really don't want to run.
At the very end of last year I was at parkrun where I was running fairly hard. Two guys overtook my about a mile in. As is often the case, they then slowed down much to my frustration. I overtook one but the other blocked my path. Instead of getting silently frustrated at the slowing pace, I spoke up.
“Come on purple shirt guy, you overtook me, let’s go.” He glanced back, nodded then picked up the pace.
Another mile later and I was regretting it. I felt I now had to keep pushing and stick close behind my new run buddy. I was running faster than I had ever run before, I was on course for a PB by 12 seconds on a morning that I hadn’t been expecting it and it hurt.
Motivation to run and motivation to run a particular pace or reach a certain goal can come from different places. Each runner runs for their own reasons and is spurred on to push themselves out the door or towards the line by different things. Sometimes it comes from unlikely places and not wanting to lose face, as mine did during that parkrun. Other times its something we feel on a deeper, more personal level. Sometimes runners describe having ‘lost’ their motivation. So I thought we’d take a look at what motivation actually is, and maybe that will help in finding it if you’ve lost yours.
