Consistency is not about having the same pace every time you go for a run. It’s not about clocking up the same weekly mileage or getting a PB every time you finish a race.
Consistency is never giving up.
That saying “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” applies here. It’s all about trying and showing up, what you achieve is a direct result of getting out there in the first place.
When I ran my first marathon nearly a decade ago I thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I crossed that line and had no intention of ever attempting that distance again. I couldn’t believe, even as I was running, that I was actually completing a marathon. It had always felt like such an unreachable goal, a goal for other people - for the real runners. I had never been a natural runner and I was in shock of what I had achieved.
I surprised myself even more when I continued running after that race. In the months of training for my first marathon I had grown to love it. That’s not to say it was easy, but a 3-mile run no longer seemed as daunting as it once had. Running had become a new habit, my go-to stress reliever and automatic boost to my mental state.
I’ve now spent over a decade running and can probably count the number of times I’ve taken a significant period off on one hand. That doesn’t mean I’ve completed all of my training runs or religiously run every day. It means sometimes I’ll go for a 2-mile run, take it easy and call it a day, or maybe a week - sometimes life just takes over. It also means occasionally running 16 miles out of the blue just because I feel like it, but by staying consistent I’m able to run far when I want to.
I’ve had ups and downs with running but throughout it all I have kept it up. It’s the one thing I won’t let slip even when life is conspiring against me. I keep showing up, sneakers on, ready to give it a go. There are days when I am slow and days when I am fast. What counts is that I am running.
If you had asked me after my first marathon whether I would run an alpine marathon in 2019, I would have said absolutely no way. At the time I was just putting together the mileage, and slowly increasing my distance week by week, looking for the absolute flattest routes to take my long runs to. I felt like I was barely getting by, doing my absolute best but thinking all along that this would be a one time deal because it was too hard to even think of doing it again.
The alpine marathon in 2019 was the culmination of almost a decade of consistent running. It included technical descents, an overwhelming amount of ascent, a heat wave, altitude and of course 26.2 miles. By staying consistent I had built up experience that I drew from on that day. Every time I had pushed myself to go for a run was extra mental strength I used to convince myself I would get up the next long, hot climb. I had confidence in my legs because of the years I had spent relying on them. I had finally worked out what to eat while running and how to stay hydrated.
Every little bit counts. No day attempting a run - or something else you want to improve at - is a write off. Even if you don’t know exactly what the result will be, it’s the little consistencies that will add up into something great, whether that is in a few months or a decade.
