Hitting The Wall

Hitting the wall (Photo credit: Bohman)

The wall is real, ask any runner. Because you can't see it or touch it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Take air for instance, you can neither see nor touch it too.


What does hitting the wall mean you may ask. Wikipedia(the poor man's reference) defines hitting the wall as "a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by sudden fatigue and loss of energy.", I think that definition is bull. 
My personal definition from my experience is: Reaching the limit of your supposed ability, the point where you decide you can't go on. Most long distance runners give up at this point, the few who manage to hit the wall and keep going pretending they didn't notice it, the few who manage this feat become Marathoners.


So why am I talking about such a boring subject on this blog? Well, life is a marathon, it throws all sorts of things your way, some days are fantastic (3 weeks with someone you love), some are terrible (tick bad days in the office), then you hit the wall, pick from the list(lose a loved one, lose your business, diagnosed for an incurable disease, bankruptcy), at that point you decide you can't take another step, every muscle in your body cries out for rest. In the real world that equates to suicide...


What do runners do? What do winners do? We up the music on our mp3's and try to go a little faster. A winner focuses on other reasons why life is great.


I could write a list as long as the distance from the earth to the moon of people who have faced adversity and mastered it. I could point you to books that talk about succeeding because of spanners thrown in you works. All I'll tell you now is this people: if you hit the wall, HIT the wall and hard keep going, don't stop. At the end of the race you won't even remember the mile marker where you hit it.


Oti.


Oti is a writer, runner and technophile.
He lives and works in the beautiful sea side city of Brighton, East-Sussex, England.