Why does a Meditation Teacher run an Ultra Marathon?
People mention that for endurance events it is more of a mental game than a physical one.
I knew my mental game was above average but I had never tested if it translates to the physical realm of endurance.
I signed up for the UTA50 which is a 52k race with 2.4k elevation gain (that's a lot of hills and stairs).
As a meditation teacher I have a high level of awareness around my thoughts patterns and recognising stress early. This came in handy because I noticed my mind was intimidated by the race but I redirected my focus to my training plan and took 1 week at a time. Putting the goal in the distance and my focus on the present, my training plan.
Meditation gives you a devotion to both your body and mind, you treat them with more respect when you have sat with them for a long time. As a result my training was slow, mindful and all about gradual progress with plenty of rest factored in. The ego wants to do things quickly which gets a lot of runners injured, I was prepared to be slow and steady, keeping my ego in check.
Through meditation you have helped your mind handle more discomfort. This allowed me to embrace slower running practices like Zone 2 training, hill repeats and stretching & mobility protocols. These built an amazing foundation for me but people often overlook them because of the discomfort of boredom.
Another element to this discomfort is pain and knowing the difference between hurt versus harm. Often sensations start in the body and we get worried about them, then fixated and start catastrophising. However, if you have a neutral or non judgemental awareness (key elements of mindfulness) to the sensations, don't attach concern rather curiosity they mostly go away. I am definitely not saying ignore your body but notice its signals of what may be hurting you which can be part of endurance but not doing you any harm.
As a meditator I am also able to trust and to surrender to a process. Often my mind wasn't convinced I was doing enough training but I was quickly able to reign this in and trust my plan. In addition there is this big uncertainty gap, it is not recommended to run the full distance, my longest run was 32kms, so there remains an unknown element that often spooks people out but I was able to embrace the excitement of this.
Meditation is built on self compassion. During my training and the race I was incredibly kind, supportive and encouraging to myself, I smiled the whole time. On days I didn't want to run, I focused on just getting going, a slow 2kms I would say to myself then the mind had warmed up and after 2kms the mental resistance was gone and I could complete my training. There is an attitude of some runners that these events are a form of punishment. I was using the event as a way to celebrate what my body could do so I used it as a form of self respect.
I loved my training and enjoyed every moment of the race. I didn't hit any wall, there were no persistent doubts about finishing, I finished strong and was in good shape the following days. While it's always hard to separate what is purely physical versus mental, I can see my mental game made the whole process enjoyable which is not how many people describe this race.
