Saturday 9 May 2015

Is pain slowing you down?

As you read this (as long as you are reading it in the first full week of May, 2015), a local runner named Charlotte Vasarhelyi is trying to conquer a 6-day running event.  The premise of the event is simple: ignore your brain and its valiant efforts to slow you down and keep running.  Do this for 144 hours straight.
While many of us will never pursue the 6 days of pain that Charlotte seems to thrive under, we all could still learn a lot from her ability to psychologically conquer the impulse to slow down.  Back in 2013, I wrote an article for Canadian Running taking a closer look at Charlotte along with general coping mechanisms runners possess and can develop to beat pain and its maniacal quest to slow us down.  The following is one of the drafts from the article...