Nuance…

One aspect of running that I appreciate is that just as life is often a complicated mix of gray areas and caveats and not simple right or wrong, so too is running. Only one male and one female will win on race day. If we look at course, state, national, or world records, even fewer people will attain those in their lifetimes. Yet, we still go out there and run and compete. Unlike competitions which focus exclusively on the win/loss outcome, there are numerous goals you can aim for in running. There are certainly people who are racing to be first and who can be legitimately disappointed if they’re not. But, if you’re not in a race for the podium or a course record, perhaps the goal is a new personal best time at a certain distance. Maybe you’re trying to finish a certain distance whether that’s a 5K, half-marathon, full marathon, or 100-miler. There is joy in accomplishing these goals, even if you weren’t “the best” that day.

Often, maybe more often than we realize, we encounter situations where right/wrong or win/lose is not easily discerned, even if it seems obvious. In running, it would be easy to assume disappointment if you saw that someone finished second in a 5K by five seconds. While it’s possible they went out too fast and fell apart at the end, it’s also possible that they smashed their former personal best and completely surprised themselves. Maybe they wish they’d also gotten the win, but that feeling may be smothered under what they did achieve.

We can take our own talents, our own training, and our own goals and work accordingly. At the end of a race there are often many smiles, not because there were dozens of divisions each yielding a winner, but because we can recognize our accomplishments within our own expectations. Sure, we would like a win and some days, that will be there for us. Other times, we can evaluate our success according to our own progress and expectations. On the other side of this, there can also be disappointment at the end of a race because we didn’t run as well as we wanted. Similar to misinterpreting a second place disappointment, it’s easy to assume that just because someone ran faster than you, they must feel somewhat good about the result. Not necessarily true, especially if they completely blew their goal.

We all always want to be improving and with running, we can work towards our goals not necessarily with the focus on win/loss, but how we’re doing relative to our training, talent, and the field that day. Evaluating our performances with a more nuanced analysis can help us keep moving forward.