All hail the unnatural athlete!
There's nothing like a charity sporting event to restore your faith in humanity. Tonight I have been helping out at NightRider*, and once again I am in awe.
The first event I did for charity was probably a Race For Life - but to be perfectly honest with you I can't remember. Since, I've done 10ks, a half marathon and even a full marathon, and still I never ceased to be amazed. Not just at the amount of money raised for such wonderful causes, but also at the people who undertake to do such things at all. Much more often than not, these are people to whom concerted physical effort does not come wholly naturally - after all, where's the excitement in sponsoring someone to do a marathon who's already done 10, all sub 3:30? These are people who want to push their own boundaries, to go to the limits (and beyond) of what they feel themselves to be capable of. And, mainly, for someone else.
Now, I'm not going to pretend that a charity athlete is always, on all occasions, 100% altruistic. Of course, you get a huge sense of achievement from completing a challenge. And sometimes a charity place is the only surefire way to get into a race. But there's so much more to it than that. There is so much more motivation when there's more at stake.
As anyone who knows me knows, I like a challenge. Hell, I'm 1.5 stone down with 2 still to go, and I'm signed up for the GNR (again) this September. But I'm not sure I would ever have run a half marathon, let alone a marathon, were it not for the charity element.
I had a 'discussion' with a serious athlete friend of mine about thus only the other day. He posited that the achievement of someone running a 5:30 marathon, for example, is less than that of the sub 3:30 runner, regardless of charity involvement.
I couldn't disagree more. It's all about context. If you've never run a mara before and your aim is simply to get round, then you've achieved your goal. And actually, when you're raising money for a charity close to your heart it becomes about so much more than the run. it's about reminding yourself how lucky you are to be in a position to be able to serve others. It's about helping those who can't help themselves. Or it's about saying thank you, repaying a debt of gratitude or giving something back to those who give of themselves so freely.
Tonight, as I watched the riders set off, saw them through their halfway breaks and cheered them over the finish line, it's not the first in, fancy-carbon-fibre-kitted guys who click through the finish area in their expensive shoes that I'm rooting for - although don't get me wrong, 100k is 100k and bloody well done them. No, it's the people at the back, slogging up those hills, determined not to let anyone down, least of all themselves, that I'm cheering for. The people who aren't totally sure that they can do it. The people who get that oh-so-familiar, overwhelming, choking, emotional feeling when they finally do cross the line. When they achieve what they set out to achieve and probably change someone else's life along the way to boot.
Those are the people I'm cheering for. Those are the people who restore my faith in humanity. We could all learn a lot from them.
The first event I did for charity was probably a Race For Life - but to be perfectly honest with you I can't remember. Since, I've done 10ks, a half marathon and even a full marathon, and still I never ceased to be amazed. Not just at the amount of money raised for such wonderful causes, but also at the people who undertake to do such things at all. Much more often than not, these are people to whom concerted physical effort does not come wholly naturally - after all, where's the excitement in sponsoring someone to do a marathon who's already done 10, all sub 3:30? These are people who want to push their own boundaries, to go to the limits (and beyond) of what they feel themselves to be capable of. And, mainly, for someone else.
Now, I'm not going to pretend that a charity athlete is always, on all occasions, 100% altruistic. Of course, you get a huge sense of achievement from completing a challenge. And sometimes a charity place is the only surefire way to get into a race. But there's so much more to it than that. There is so much more motivation when there's more at stake.
As anyone who knows me knows, I like a challenge. Hell, I'm 1.5 stone down with 2 still to go, and I'm signed up for the GNR (again) this September. But I'm not sure I would ever have run a half marathon, let alone a marathon, were it not for the charity element.
I had a 'discussion' with a serious athlete friend of mine about thus only the other day. He posited that the achievement of someone running a 5:30 marathon, for example, is less than that of the sub 3:30 runner, regardless of charity involvement.
I couldn't disagree more. It's all about context. If you've never run a mara before and your aim is simply to get round, then you've achieved your goal. And actually, when you're raising money for a charity close to your heart it becomes about so much more than the run. it's about reminding yourself how lucky you are to be in a position to be able to serve others. It's about helping those who can't help themselves. Or it's about saying thank you, repaying a debt of gratitude or giving something back to those who give of themselves so freely.
Tonight, as I watched the riders set off, saw them through their halfway breaks and cheered them over the finish line, it's not the first in, fancy-carbon-fibre-kitted guys who click through the finish area in their expensive shoes that I'm rooting for - although don't get me wrong, 100k is 100k and bloody well done them. No, it's the people at the back, slogging up those hills, determined not to let anyone down, least of all themselves, that I'm cheering for. The people who aren't totally sure that they can do it. The people who get that oh-so-familiar, overwhelming, choking, emotional feeling when they finally do cross the line. When they achieve what they set out to achieve and probably change someone else's life along the way to boot.
Those are the people I'm cheering for. Those are the people who restore my faith in humanity. We could all learn a lot from them.
posted by Tegwen at 05:14
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