What am I doing?

My Challenge: 52 half marathon runs in 52 weeks, ending with Cardiff Half in October 2023!

Charity:  I am raising money for: bigmoose – goal £10k in 52
weeks!

I personally believe that we are the biggest opponent to our
own achievements, hence You v You.  For me, this challenge is about inspiring myself to push my boundaries and set my own goals in life.   

I used to do a lot of challenges in my past and I have not done many recently.  One of the reasons has been lack of internal inspiration and motivation. I have listened to many ‘inspirational speakers’ and read many ‘inspirational books’ but have often found them uninspiring at a personal level as it is not something I would ever do or achieve (at this point in my life anyway, maybe never). That is not to say what those people achieved is not inspiring, the stories and achievements are amazing, it was just not something I could relate to as a personal goal.

Unlike the amazing bigmoose founder, Jeff Smith, I am unlikely to climb Everest.  I am also unlikely to ever be the first women to canoe around the world on a plank of wood.  In fact, I am unlikely to be the first women/person to do anything really and so why bother?

That got me thinking… why am I comparing myself to others.  I can set my own inspiration for what I want to achieve and so that is what I have done. The only person holding me back is me!

We are all unique. Our genetic make up and our life experiences combine to make us who we are.  Our lives unfold to the experiences we encounter and no-one else can tell us what is best for us since they don’t live in our minds and bodies.  I learnt this the hard way through an exceptionally difficult period of burnout which is a story for another day.

I found that I often hold myself back through negative self-judgment and fear of failure.  However, no-one else can tell me what inspires me. No-one can set my limits for me.  No-one else can stop me achieving something for myself. And so the #victoriachallenge52weeks idea was born.  

I am running 52 half marathon runs in 52 weeks.  That is a lot of running for me to do and fit in around 3 children and work but I am going to do it.  Although I am raising money for bigmoose during this challenge, I am mainly doing it for me.  Selfish? No, I want to set my own challenge to inspire myself and push my limits.

By doing that, I keep myself energised and discover more about my
capabilities.   At the end of the day I have to keep myself well first. That is when I am of use to others. 

When I was ill I was of no use to anyone else at all.  Having a purpose, setting myself goals and sticking to them helps my mental health and the running helps my physical health.

Bigmoose does an amazing amount of work supporting mental health, suicide prevention and homelessness with which is why I have chosen to fundraise for this charity. Not only do they provide people with formal help and support when needed, as a charity they are a generally supportive community who help and encourage people to be their best and get out there and achieve great things for themselves. So it is an honour to help them raise the funds for project £1million.

I don’t want to be static, I want to grow and I think it will be an exciting journey.

I believe is that personal change starts in small steps defined by ourselves. If change was easy, we would all do it and there would
not be thousands of books on the subject.

You can have an idea of where you are going but you don’t need to know the outcome.  I don’t know what will happen as a result of doing this challenge.  I should at least get fitter!

It is a stepping-stone approach to going on a journey and the biggest opponent to starting is usually ourselves. Our excuses, our lack of
energy, our negative talk, our self-doubt, our fear of failure.

I may run 52 half marathons in 52 weeks and never run again.  Or I may go on and do marathons.  Who knows. What I do know is that it will lead somewhere new.