Nothing Could Replace The Feeling Of Competition

By Jason Sutcliffe

I have always been a competitive person, it’s how I was raised, it’s embedded in my DNA, it’s who I am. I played competitive hockey and soccer, and there is nothing that can replace the feeling you get on your way to a game. The feeling you get when you skate up to the face-off circle, or take your place in the mid-field just seconds before the game starts. Anyone who has played competitive sports knows the feeling I am talking about.

That was the feeling that I lived for, that rush of adrenaline. The problem is that after the age of 18 all that was taken away, I mean you still play sports and you love them but the feeling is different, there is something missing. From the age of 18 to about 28 I searched for that, I craved that.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally found something that gave me that feeling—marathon running. People ask me all the time, why, why would you put your body through that, for what—are you crazy? The answer–not at all, I love it, and it is the individual element to running that has given me that feeling. Knowing I am stepping up to race and for no other reason than to bring the absolute best out of myself, to push my body to it’s absolute limit

From the first time I ran long distances of 10 to 15 miles I knew I was in. I knew that this was for me. When your body says no more and your mind says yes more, you can do this, just focus, there is no quit in you, there is no distance that is going to break you. When your knees hurt, your hamstrings tighten, your ankles are on fire and you know that most people would quit, but not you, not today, not ever.

It is a state of mind, the training is never fun but it’s all worth it when you get that moment. The moment when you approach the start line and you know you are just minutes away from that gun going off and you beginning to chase personal greatness. That moment when everything hurts, but you know there are only a few miles left and there is no way you will quit now, because you don’t know how to quit, and finally that moment when you cross the finish line and reached your goal and achieved personal greatness.

You know in that moment that you have done something that not everyone can do. You know you have given everything you had to give on that day.

The level of pride you have in your ability to compete and qualify to run with the best runners in the world. That ladies and gentlemen is the reason why I run marathons, I love the feeling of competition, the butterflies before it starts and the accomplishments when it is done.