Goggins Challenge. A Journey into the mind. My mind!

Apr 19

You heard of the Goggins challenge?

Run 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours!

I decided to do it 2 weeks before while out running listening to him talk about it. My first thought was it would be quite easy but after thinking about it i worked out it might actually be quite tough 😮

I've got a torn cruciate and bucket handle meniscus tear in my right knee so i need to be careful when running etc.

So, the Friday before kick off, i got myself prepped. Rough idea of nutrition, all herbalife really. Doing this kind of thing, a large part of it is 'how you feel' during it, and respond accordingly.

About 8pm i had a moment of panic as i saw on social media a few people had started already. I thought i'd fucked up the times but upon inspection, i was right. I can only assume these people started 2 runs early due to them fucking up the times, or they wanted to be finished for going to work on the Monday morning.

I'd planned to go to bed 9pm ish to be up for the 4am start but at 11pm i was still on the go. It's hard to sleep when the excitement kicks in.

The alarm went off at 3:30am and off i went. I enjoyed the first 4 runs. The 5th i was starting to get sore legs. Left thigh was a bit nippy, but i put my mind else where and focused on content ideas i could create out the challenge.

Ryan & Annie brought Innes through with a home made creme egg scone & haddock stovies from Boogie Woogie. 

I didn't sleep between the 5th and 6th run (8pm - midnight) and during the 6th run, my mind managed to get away from me and my thoughts changed to 'i need to be responsible'. If i put my knee out again that's months on crutches etc and not fair on Sarah & Louis. I'd made it half way so that was still an achievement in itself. Nobody would really be caring anyway.

That's the thing about these types of events. It's purely for yourself.

So after run 6 (midnight) I was done. In my head it was over. I finished my rebuild strength, popped a restore pill and off i went to bed.

Zero intention of getting up for the 4am run! But here's where it gets interesting.

My alarm went off at 3:50am as i forgot to turn it off. I moved my legs and my first thought was, 'hmm, they actually feel ok'. I got up for a pee then stood at the top of the stairs. There was a full blown discussion going on inside my head. Do i go and run, or do i go back to bed. 

I went back to bed. Sarah rolled over so i knew she wasn't awake and i started to think i could just say i'd been out and get up for the 8am run, she'd never know. Nobody would ever know...

But i would!

Usually, it's you trying to do something and the little voice in your head saying you can't, but at 4am it was the other way around, i was trying hard to get out of it and the voice in my head was saying get out and run. Do what you fucking said you would.

So i did! I got up and ran. Run 7 was the only one i started a little bit late. 4:14am! Due to the ongoing discussions. Every other run was within a minute of the start time.

I'm still to this day wondering what made me get up...

And i can only put it down to nearly 20 years of personal development. Listening to the likes of Jim Rohn, Les Brown, Tony Robbins harp on about discipline, showing up etc and doing so much work i have a mind i can count on when things get tough.

I woke up at 7:40 to start run 8 and was very emotional. My boy came into give me a bosie as i was getting ready and i couldn't stop crying. I think i managed to hide it from him and i cried all the way round the whole 4 miles of run 8. A little bit of pain but mostly between gratitude for whatever got me up to do the 4am run and thinking about Granda Robb. I even thought i saw him on the way round but i'm sure it was my mind playing tricks on me. I also knew at that point, barring any serious injury...

i was going to complete the challenge.

I got back and Sarah gave me some good, albeit agony, deep tissue massage. I was proper excited now as my legs felt great and ready to go again with only 4 runs to go. And i get a bit giddy when i'm tired 🙄

I ran the same route each time and on run 9, midday, as i ran past my mum's house, they spied me and came out cheering, i managed to hold it together until i was past but the emotion got the better of me again and cried the rest of the way home!

I got home and Sarah had run a bath which eased off the legs and as i lay in the bath, i knew completing the challenge was now a formality barring any major issues. I did a bit more self massage on the sore bits and i was ready for run 10, 4pm. Again i ran past my folks house but i was ready for them this time and managed to hold it together.

Emotion is a funny thing when you're absolutely shattered.

Run 11 finished and Sarah gave the legs another quick going over so now i just had to wait for midnight to come.

Off i went in the pissing rain for run 12 and as i crossed the car park, i slipped on the mud. Imagine, 1 run till completion and i'd fucked my knee!!! 😣 

Slight change of route as i wanted to finish with a rep of the stairs i have my football team do when it's too wet for the grass. They love it... 

Don't ya, Brucey? 😎

So, challenge complete. Same route each time. No headphones, just my own thoughts every step of the way. Purposely, because the biggest part of this challenge was controlling the mind when things get difficult. 

I wanted each split completed in less than an hour. I got them all under 50 mins. 7 runs under 45 and 4 under 40 mins. 12 runs. 100,000+ steps. 48 miles.

Fueled entirely by Herbalife Nutrition & a Boogie Woogie creme egg scone 🙂

I drank down my last rebuild strength, popped another restore pill and slept like a baby!

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