KEEPING GOING – IN LIFE AND SPORT
Orkney Theatre, KGS, Kirkwall
The Grimond Lecture
You’d think the toughest challenge of ultra-running would be the physical one, of covering marathon distances day in, day out, in sometimes extreme conditions. But no, says ultra-runner William Sichel, the hardest barrier is mental. Even in early races in 1994 he noticed that other runners were simply stopping, and not for physical issues. “This intrigued me and generated a life-long interest in the psychological side of running and sport in general.”
He’s applied the mental approach to big challenges in everyday life, whether running an Angora rabbit business in Sanday on eight acres of land, or coping with health problems or bereavement. The approach has taken him to his best 24-hour Basel in 2000, to the world’s hottest race in Badwater in 2006 and his first 6-day race; and then in 2014 the ultimate test: the 3,100 miler.
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“Elated, I sat down for a moment and towelled myself down. I then had a moment of great mental clarity and clear focus. In an instant of enlightenment, I suddenly realised that all I had to do, was ‘to run as far as I could every day’ – it’s as simple as that. No need to over-complicate anything – keep it simple. I just had to accept, completely, that there was nothing else I could do or expect. Everything else was stripped away to reveal this one simple path.”
