Climbing Mountains
Happy New Year and welcome to the first Running Rare letter for 2024!
Happy New Year and welcome to the first Running Rare letter for 2024!
Today’s Letter at a Glance
Reflection: Consistency over Intensity
Update: The Running Rare Health Fund hits a significant financial milestone
Noteworthy: Pebbles and Mountains
Reflection: Consistency over Intensity
On Saturday, I participated in the Jerrabomberra Parkrun with a group of friends from
. The 5km course is set on a trail that climbs the Jerrabomberra Mountain Reserve. As I made the 2.5km ascent with Sunday, I felt gratitude. To be in nature. To be in good company. To be moving.This was my fourth consecutive week of participating in Parkrun — I had previously run one in Batemans Bay and two at Burley Griffin. But this run felt different to the previous. This was the first week that I felt free. Free from breathlessness. Free from the need to will myself to the next lamp-post or corner. Free from the need to walk. Resistance had given way to flow. My mind and body attuned and integrated. I felt present. I felt calm.
This moment had been twelve months in the making… and as
keeps reminding me ‘we’re just getting started’!
At the end of 2022 I was exhausted and I needed to make significant changes in my life to ensure I didn’t continue the downward spiral. So I dedicated 2023 to stability. Over the year I learnt that to achieve this I needed to:
Improve the length and quality of my sleep,
Increase and improve the quality of my food intake to match my energy requirements,
Reduce the amount of time I spent on my phone,
Manage life with a chronic condition with lower levels of fatigue
Develop tools and habits for managing stress more effectively
I am indebted to the support I received throughout last year, as I have been able to make quantifiable improvements in all of these areas of my life.
In November, with the foundation laid, I started working towards my New Year’s Resolution for 2024 of rebuilding fitness and running again. According to an article by Time Magazine, 80% of people are likely to fail their New Year’s resolution by February. So my thinking was that if I started in November, and could make it through to the summer break, this would be a good indicator that I was forming sustainable systems that were not dependent on the convenience, or additional energy, that the summer break afforded.
Drawing inspiration from articles such as Consistency over Volume bySobering Thoughts and discussions in my
friends’ group chat, I knew I was going to need to approach building my fitness differently than how I trained growing up. For starters, the systems I would need to develop had to be sustainable. Not for a week, or even months. But years and decades. It wasn’t about achieving peak performance for a tournament or game anymore, it now had to be about the long game. I would need to transition my thinking from health being a destination, to health being a lifelong practice.This very quickly ruled out any activity that caused significant fatigue or soreness that would prevent me from exercising in subsequent days. So a great work-out is no longer about hitting PB’s or pushing my limits, but one that I can recover from before the next day.
In late November,
and I started Lifting for Resilience and Recovery for Resilience. Ben’s support and encouragement over the years has been invaluable. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. He has been instrumental in helping me improve the stability of my health and make goals such as running again possible. Ben, if you’re reading this. Thank you. I honestly can’t wait for what 2024 holds.Update: The Running Rare Health Fund hits a significant financial milestone
At the end of last year Ben asked me what my goal was for Running Rare in 2024. After some thought, the next day I responded that my goal was to:
Continue to build awareness of Hands Across Canberra and the Running Rare Health fund, and
Increase the fund’s balance from $7,500 to $30,000.
Later that week, at a Hands Across Canberra function, I was asked impromptu to share my story and why I had setup the Running Rare Health Fund. I explained how Running Rare came to be and my desire to support the work of charities in the rare disease sector. At the end of the event two individuals from a local medical practice approached me and shared that they would like to raise the fund’s balance… to $20,000. What?! Just days earlier I had set what I thought to be an extremely audacious fundraising goal and now we were two thirds of the way there. The timing and generosity of this gift left me close to tears. I am grateful and excited to see the momentum building behind this fund.
Rare Disease Day is on the 29th of February this year. In conjunction with my efforts to raise awareness, each year I also endeavour to make February a fundraising month. The complexity and barriers to the changes needed to improve the rare disease sector is overwhelming. It will take time and enormous amounts of sustained effort by the public and private sector. However, I believe we have an opportunity to make a difference today by getting behind our local rare disease charities and supporting their work financially. The Running Rare Health fund is just one way that we can do this.
You can learn more about Hands Across Canberra, named funds and donating below.
Website: handsacrosscanberra.org.au
Named Funds: handsacrosscanberra.org.au/make-an-impact/named-funds/
Donate: hands.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1198
Noteworthy
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out;
it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
Muhammad Ali
Writing for Resilience
I am grateful to be a part of the Writing 4 Resilience team. We’re a community who are striving to build resilience in our local community with the goal of making Canberra suicide free by 2033. I would encourage you to check out their newsletters!
When I saw the run I was so pumped. Jerra parkrun is a toughy, so amped mate, absolutely love the journey you're on.
I love this so much for you Tim! How awesome!
I've heard how tough the Jerra park run is too! Unreal!