Earlier this year a good friend invited me to walk the Virtual London Marathon with her to raise money to support a charity that is very dear to her heart.
I am not a natural athlete and I would rather exercise my mind than my body, so when she made the suggestion my instinct was to decline the invitation…but then something happened – I noticed my internal resistance to taking her up on her offer; I noticed the thoughts coming up that it would be “awful and painful and humiliating”; I noticed the anxiety welling in the pit of my stomach & a creeping sense of dread that made the back of my neck feel uncomfortable.
I noticed the discomfort…
And I sat with all that discomfort & just looked at it…& then looked at it some more. I didn’t allow it to pull me into a knee-jerk reaction of saying “No!”...I created some space; some space in which as well as experiencing all that discomfort, I could also think about what it would mean to my friend to have me walking alongside & supporting her on this journey; what it would mean to me to be in her company during all the training we would have to do; what it would mean to the people who would benefit from the great work that the charity does that we would be raising funds for.
I got in touch with my values…
So we walked & we walked & we walked; And all the time we were walking we were talking and connecting - with each other & with the wonderful nature that we were passing through. There were some really tough times, like when we did our first 16 mile walk on what turned out to be a scorching hot day over really rough terrain, and there were some wonderful moments, appreciating wildlife & views & most of all our friendship.
I committed to this valued action…
And on the big day it was wonderful & challenging in equal measure. We started out at 6.30am in pouring rain (I hate walking in rain!), but we very quickly saw another participant (recognisable from his number bib) & he called out & encouraged us.
Then the rain stopped & pretty soon we’d bumped into a group of ladies who were participating to raise money for West Kent Mind – they were so jolly & bubbly, it was infectious! And we saw some beautiful places along the way...
And then it hurt, it really hurt…especially towards the end, & it was increasingly difficult not to get caught up in thoughts of how difficult this was becoming, but on & on we went…& the more we went on the more there were meetings with other participants & lovely supporters who came out to cheer us & encourage us along; many a random passer-by shouted out encouragement to us as they could appreciate the effort we were making.
We connected with our common humanity…
