Instant Custom Signs – Drew Brims' Blog

Last year, one of my colleagues was going through a rough family patch and asked for some time to sort things out.  Being the sage that I am, I told this employee that they should take the time they need to heal but to remember,  “It’s not what happens to you that defines who you are, it’s how you deal with what happens to you that shows what you are made of”.  I’m probably paraphrasing here.

The employee took a couple of days off and returned to work refreshed, invigorated and healed.  Two things worked to my advantage.  First, this person was not in the production team so a couple of days off did not interfere with deliveries.  Second, had they been at work, they would have been distracted and not very effective anyway so better to go home, grieve and return when ready to work.

This incident and my words of advice struck a cord with me a little later in the year.  I’d been training very hard for a 3:45 marathon time.  The training schedule involved training 6 days a week and running further distances than I had ever done in training before.  I was confident that I could run a marathon in 3:45, a time that had eluded me to that point.  In the weeks leading up to the race, my legs were sore, I was tired, I just wanted to get this thing done and over with.  The marathon of choice was the Prince Edward County Marathon.  I was ready. Finally, I would achieve my goal of a 3:45 marathon!

On the Saturday before the race, I was awakened at 5:30 am with a violent leg cramp.  The muscle was tighter than a drum and nothing I did would relieve the tension or the pain. I had to accept that I could not run that weekend. All that training had seemingly gone down the drain!  Then I recalled my sage words of advice: ‘It’s not what happens to you…’  I had to suck it up!  I put on a brave face, limped around and we enjoyed the rest of the weekend in Picton, one of Ontario’s prettiest towns.  On Sunday we went to the finish line to watch others cross, cheering them on for the last hundred yards or so.  We cheered so much, we were hoarse by the time we left town.

As it turned out, the race was extremely tough with strong headwinds most of the way.  Most people were at least 10 minutes slower in finishing than they predicted.  I would NOT have achieved a 3:45 in this race.

Two weeks later, recovered from the cramp, I ran the Toronto Marathon and did finish in under 3:45…just.  I had not planned to run this one and my training had peaked two weeks earlier so I was surprised to finish in my goal time.  What had seemed so devastating in Picton turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I was pleased that I had not let the disappointment in Picton get me down.  But if my own words had not come back to haunt me, I’m not sure my attitude would have been the same.

Funny old life, isn’t it?

How about you? Do you find yourself having to dig deep sometimes? I love getting feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment. But you don’t have to be a blogger, I’d love to hear from all of you!

Until next time,

Drew

Tags: determination, distance running, Drew Brims, Instant Custom Signs, perseverance, Toronto Marathon