April 16th - One small step for Rob

It has been a while since I last posted so I thought It was time to do a catch up and let you know what's been going on with me.  

The autumn has been busy and I have been trying to hard to continue my activities. Swimming 3 or 4 times a week has helped a lot and so have the (almost) weekly parkruns. I was delighted on Christmas eve to have reached my 50th parkrun and my 39th of 2023 which was also my 39th shirtless parkrun of the year too. 

My 50th Parkrun on Christmas eve

This year started off a bit hit and miss, I am not sure what was going on with me but it was a bit of a stressful January and then I was away for some of February on a work trip, the planning of which occupied a lot of my time, the regular swimming helped me get through all of the stress which is great. 

One thing I have noticed is my ability to tolerate the cold a lot more, in previous winters I have often been swimming and then driven home shivering for a fair time while I warm up, This year I have not had that happen at all, my post swim shivering has stopped happening and I have really noticed I can deal with the colder days a lot more. Saying that this winter seems to be dragging on a LONG time, I know in previous years I would already be enjoying the warmth of the sun and warmer days but this year the cold seems to be really dragging on. 

Although I have been doing a lot of my usual activities such as cold water swimming and the shirtless parkrun I have been feeling the need to push things a little more recently. I have recently been talking to a friend in the USA and he said something rather interesting to me that made me think a lot, he said to me "I got into rock climbing recently, and that was terrifying, but then it got amazing. I upgraded to lead climbing which is exponentially more terrifying but is now exponentially amazing. I plan on doing some outdoor climbing this summer which is even more terrifying, but I'm sure by the end of the summer I'll be comfortable with that too. . . . . Problem is, once you start doing uncomfortable things, they become addictions, and then you don't really get the benefits of the discomfort."

I then had someone mention that they thought I was brave for running parkrun shirtless, It made me realise that doing the 5km parkrun shirtless has become comfortable for me, its NOT a brave thing for me to do anymore, its just what I do. Lots of people recognise me and know me at the local parkrun and the challenge has been dulled a bit, yes it is still a challenge but no where near as much of a challenge as it was when I started out. So I decided it was time to do something about that, small steps first and hopefully building up to some bigger challenges. 

So when I do parkrun I usually drive down in t-shirt, shorts, trainers, maybe a sweater too, I park up and walk the short distance to the start, hang around for 10-15 mins until its nearing the start time and then a minute before the start I take off my t-shirt, leave it with my bag and off I run, well after a think I decided that the best option is to extend my time of being shirtless, and so I decided to leave home shirt free and not put one on until after the run had finished. 

To help encourage me I decided to tell some people my plan, I feel that if I tell people then I must go through with it,  so I told a friend in Northern Ireland and then with encouragement from another friend in the USA it was time to go for it and be shirtless from the moment I leave home to after the run. 

The drive down was easy, I always think of myself of being in my own bubble when I am in my car so I have no problems with that, I parked up and sat in my car for a few mins whilst I plucked up the courage to get out. "Why is this so difficult?" I asked myself as I sat there, its silly really as its such a simple thing, but saying that there were a lot of people about and parkrun had about 450 attendees so there really was no hiding. 

I went for it, sunglasses on, my face buried in my phone ignoring everyone around me, it wasn't really cold but equally it was not warm either, around 7°C (44°f), I put my bag down and I could hear people discussing how cold they were, were they saying that because they had seen me? or was it coincidence? who knows. Anyway the time passed fast and I was soon heading off on the run back into familiar territory. 

In reflection I wonder what on earth I was worrying about? I mean it really was not a problem to do, I managed it and had nothing negative happen, but I also know that when I do it again I will have just as much trouble getting myself to do it. 

So as I say it is small steps all the way and this was one small step for Rob.