26. What Ultrarunning Taught Me About Running A Startup - Business Bits - 30 Days Challenge
4 years ago I ran my first marathon. I wasn’t prepared for it, my longest ran before that race was just 15km (and never ran a distance longer than that before). I didn’t have proper running shoes and I was weighing 20 kilos more than now. And yet, I finished the marathon in 5 hours and 39 minutes. It was a grueling and, especially in the last part, humbling experience.
But it was also the beginning of a superb journey in the running world, a journey which took me soon into covering distances way longer than a marathon. I won’t go into details, but ,one year after the first marathon, I finished my first 60km ultra. Then, early next year, I finished my first 100k and soon after that my first 200km+ (the second longest continuous race in Europe, called Ultrabalaton, 222km). This year I also ran my first 24 hours and 48 hours races.
Why Do I Run?
Although I lost 20 kilos since I started to run and my overall health improved drastically, the most important benefit of being an ultra runner, at least for me, is not primarily health -although, like I said, I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate that .
For me, it's about mental strength. I often compare my ultras to long, quiet meditations. If you have to run continuously for 8 or 10 hours, then your mind must be wired in a certain way. No room for “monkey mind”, as I called it - or the mind that jumps around from one thing to another, incessantly.
If you want to control and maintain your output, your mind must be clear as a winter pond. You must be able to maintain a constant pace, to counter-effect fatigue and other low-energy stages through which your body, eventually, will go. You must also be able to maintain a clear “locus of control”, or the ability to properly evaluate the level of damage, and, if need will be, to stop before the damage is too big.
And the nicest thing about mental benefits is that they can be transferred or applied to many other areas of your life. Like, let’s say, business. Sometimes, running a business is just another form of ultra running, in which your mind must also remain clear as a winter pond, in order to counter-effect the chaos of a new market or the fatigue resulted from overworking.
What follows is a very short list of the benefits that ultra running brought me as a entrepreneur.
1. Preparation is key
The amount of entropy in an ultra race increases with literally every step. As you progress in the race, the potential for unexpected events grows logarithmically. At some point you will be hit by something, being it fatigue, an injury or just some emotional turmoil. Something unexpected will happen, that’s sure.
The only way to mitigate the effects of the unexpected is preparation. The preparation for an ultra should be as thorough as possible. From bandaids to race plans, to clothing, to mental rehearsal, you do your best to take everything into account. At some point, though, something will hit, but at least you did your best to minimize the effects.
The same thing happens in business. Do your research. Read about the niche you’re entering. Gather intelligence on the field. Read use cases. Because, at some point, something unexpected will hit you as well, but at least your did your best to minimize the effects.
2. The cocoon limits
When I started to run, 5 kilometers was my upper limit. I mean, in the beginning, if I was able to run 5 kilometers, I literally felt like a god. Then, when I got comfortable at this distance, I started to ponder the idea of going for, you know, 10km.
The jump from 5k to 10k was extremely difficult. There is an entire complex of factors, from psychological to biological, that have to concurrently occur, so you can go over this threshold. The same happened for 10k, 20k, 30k and then even further, 50k or 100k.
I call these levels “the cocoon limits”. Because they are perceived like limits and they are difficult, but once conquered, you realize they were just the beginning. It’s the same in business: going from 100k EUR per year to 200k EUR per year may feel almost impossible, and yet, it’s just the beginning, for, you know, your first million. Or two, or ten, or one hundred.
3. Everything changes
In an ultra, pain travels across your body. I heard this sentence many times, from many ultra runners, but it was only when I experimented personally that I understood what it really meant. It’s not that pain is elusive or shallow. Nope, it’s still very powerful and it hurts like hell.
But it doesn’t last, that's the trick. Whatever pain you feel, at some point it will go. If only to be replaced by another type of pain, but it will eventually fade away. So giving in at the first sign of pain is not gonna make you an ultra runner (please read above about the “locus of control” thing: you still have to be able to differentiate between the “pain that will go” and “the pain that will still go, but only after severely injuring you”).
It’s the same in business. Each and every crisis will eventually fade away. Nothing lasts forever, so there’s no point in giving in at the first sign of trouble. Just stick with it, dance with the pain, run with the pain and it will eventually disappear. Alas, that’s equally true for success, it won’t last either.
4. The compound effect of not stopping
In an ultra, walk before you have to. That’s probably the best advice I ever got - and applied - in my ultra running career. Unless you are in the 0.0000001 percent of elite ultra runners that can actually run for the entire distance, you will have to walk at some point. 99.999999 percents of ultra runners are walking, especially in the second half of a race.
So one of the best strategies for finishing an ultra is to take into account walking before you have to. Because of you have to stop, it means you're way too tired, you will have to stop and that’s not an option. Instead, mix some walking into your routine and you’ll be able to properly balance resources.
Walking is still covering ground, you know. It’s still going forward. It’s ok. As long as you keep pushing forward, you’re ok. That’s the same in business. Some days you feel like you’re just crawling. That you’re not making progress. Well, crawling is still going forward.
As long as you don’t stop, or don’t quit, every little step counts.
This post is part of a 30 days challenge on business, you can find the entire list of articles here.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
Great article! If you fall on your face, you are still moving forward :)