Martin Yelling - Running in the Midpack

This book is dedicated with love to my Dad who never ran but always just got it. Everything I do is to make you proud, and I run with you always. Anji

To Ruby, Sonny and Beau, run through life with patience, passion, courage, curiosity and love. Martin

Contents

We love to run. We love that it pushes us, stretches us, asks us difficult questions, challenges us. We love that it also calms us, and gives us space, time just to be, but also time for others. We love the scope for striving and improvement, exploring faster, longer and getting stronger. We love the way running captures us body, mind and spirit. We love how running connects us to people, places, nature and landscapes. We love its simplicity, but also its complexity.

We want this to be a book that nourishes your running, that helps you cultivate running progress and that brings even more joy to your running.

We run. We are runners.

Some of us have a physical activity conscience. We just feel its something we have to do.

We run and we are the midpack. All of us. Were not defined by finish positions, split times, performance, miles run per week, segments chased, personal bests (PBs), number of race starts or race finishes, or DNFs (did not finish). Statistics are not what make us a runner. They sometimes motivate us, we use the numbers, but we dont identify ourselves by them.

The middle of the pack is no longer a place defined by finish times and percentages, and people in the middle of the pack can display just as much motivation and ambition (although with different goals) as those at the front.

Yes, running is something we do, but its also something we are . Sometimes we identify as a runner alongside being a mother, a father, a daughter, a son, a teacher, an accountant, a grandparent, a bus driver, a manager, a writer, an electrician, a human. Running isnt everything we do, but it does shape who we are and how we interact and engage with the world around us.

Were real people and the midpack is a place where we hang out. Its sociable, but it can also be meditative. We run for the sake of it. We run for the challenge and for our goals. We simply love being outside.

We regularly move around in this midpack place we call home. The midpack has range. Its an environment where our running matters. Where we push ourselves, sometimes more than others, where we pull our fellow midpack along, but where we also rely on them, where we tackle demons, we face fears and we challenge perceptions. Were not the winners, but were rarely right at the back, were everywhere in between.

We wear big shorts, short shorts, we sometimes dribble, we have funny strides, dress like this, act like that, run like whatever, we couldnt really give a . We care about each other, we care about you, we care about running companionship, we care about making and keeping friends, we care about being there, we care about showing up, we care about being on the line, we care about giving it what weve got on the day, we care about making the finish (most of the time!), however we can.

Oh, and we always know where the great coffee is afterwards.

Were past starting out. Weve been at the back, were rarely at the front but its fun to try. Weve done the beginner apps, the first-timer training plans, weve wrestled anxieties and race day nerves (we still do, they just feel a bit different). Weve failed, weve tried again, and failed again. Sometimes our training works, sometimes it doesnt.

Were committed. We run regularly. Its not often that we totally lose our way with our running but it does ebb and flow. Even when many of our friends are runners, we still lose our desire-to-run mojo sometimes. Sure, we can all list our personal bests but our favourite stories are often about the times it all went wrong. We run in seasons. We have those months where our running just clicks and everything feels amazing, but we regularly have seasons where everything we do feels like an all-out, grind-out effort.

We are inspired by the people who are like us just as much as the pros. We say well done to anyone who finishes, and we admire those who take prizes home, too. We are motivated by everyone who shows up.

For many of us, the only place weve ever been is the midpack. The midpack isnt a perfect place. Its full of possibilities. We like it there.

The midpack is our place, your place, and everyone elses.

Its through speaking and sharing ideas about running, expressing hopes and aspirations, worries, anxieties and concerns, reflections and reviews that coaching, progress, personal development and change take place.

Throughout this book, well explore backgrounds, contexts, expert thinking and opinion, scenarios and solutions concerning these, and take a peek at how runners live, thrive and move in the midpack. We will offer practical advice that you might want to experiment with, explore, think about or leave alone.

Its the movement that takes place in the middle of the pack that makes it a special place.

The midpack isnt a fixed place, and movement in the midpack isnt necessarily unidirectional. Its not always about relentlessly pressing forwards or sliding backwards. Instead, you can intentionally focus on ways to run in the midpack. You can opt to set the bar high, get your race face on and pull out all the stops towards progress, or you can take your foot off the gas, knock it into cruise control and be mellow. The midpack has many spaces along a continuum of people, aspirations, motivations. Its like finding your place on the wave in a surf break; we cant all be on the peak, sometimes were waiting down the line, sometimes were out the back, sometimes were paddling through the break and occasionally were washed up on the beach!

How you approach your midpack running depends on many, often shifting, motivations, aspirations, personal situations, contexts, challenges, risks and realities. Well look at lots of these things, but what is clear to us and therefore will represent a recurring and constant thread throughout the book is the notion of process , and specifically, for us as midpackers, to be able to trust the process in our running.

Trusting the process means you know the highs and lows that come with training. It means you understand the value of your bad days as much as the good ones. You know how important rest is. You trust that its not always going to be easy. Trusting the process means you are reflective about your running and that you (hopefully) arrive at your target race feeling prepared for and confident about what lies ahead. You know your race strategy and you trust that it will work, and theres no need to panic. You might have coaches, clubmates and friends you can lean on for support but when it comes to it, it all comes down to you.

We will explore how the process of getting your mind, your training, your nutrition and your race days right for you can help you to grow and nurture this trust.

Were all different. In running parlance, some folk just choose their parents more carefully and have the genetic toolkit to gazelle about. For some, running just comes easy(er). With training, and with different types of training, runners also adapt differently. The stimulus applied (i.e. the type of running completed, the frequency, volume, intensity, duration, time, etc) and the motivations and aspirations sitting behind them, all add up to the fact that running and runners are not equal. What this means in reality is that the midpack is made up of many different types of runner at different points in their running journey.