A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ
LIFE’S RELAY RACE
This past weekend I participated in the Hood To Coast Relay - running the 200 miles from Mt Hood out to the Oregon Coast - one of the oldest relay races in the country. It was the first competitive relay race that I have participated in. 1,000 teams of 12 runners each converge on Oregon from all over the world to run the now 41 year old race.
I was a late fill-in for my team. I had not planned to run the relay as I’ve been training for my Chicago and New York marathons in October and November respectively. A runner on my friend’s team pulled out the week before based on an injury, so I was a last minute addition to the team.
Overall, I had a great time, met some great people, challenged myself to do something new, and in the process learned a few lessons. I spent 48 hours with 12 people - 11 of whom I had never met before - while sleeping just a couple of hours in a tent in the middle of a field. Here are a few of my biggest take-aways:
Not everything is a competition.
I am a competitive person by nature. I compete with myself mostly, turning almost everything into a game of sorts. Every time I hope on the Peloton I have a goal of finishing the run in the top 10%. Every time I record a race on my running app, I shoot for a PR. Our team didn’t finish in the top 25% percentile. Or the top 50% percentile. Or the top 75% percentile. We finished in the bottom 15% of all teams. I probably began the race with a mindset of competing and quickly realized that wasn’t what the weekend was going to be about. And that was ok. I re-centered on the purpose of the Hood To Coast experience and settled into enjoying the 36 hours without focusing on how quickly the team was running, whether we were ahead or behind. My message to every runner before they began the leg or running was “Go run your race.” This was for them, and for us collectively. We weren’t running for anyone else. Instead of running someone else’s race or competing against
You can accomplish incredible things with a team.
Using this race as a simple example, there was no way I could run 200 miles over 36 hours. Together we accomplished it without much consequence. Collectively, you will always be able to go further faster with the right team. Perhaps more importantly, individually we will show up stronger on a team than we will as individuals. I consistently run at a faster pace when I run with others than I do when I take solo runs. I am convinced we always show up for others and will often push harder for others than we will for ourselves. It was a great experience to be part of a team for just 36 hours to see what a group can accomplish. Imagine what can happen when that team sticks together for a year, three years, five years, a decade or two? The accomplishments are exponential.
When you think you have nothing left, it’s never true.
There were moments in the 92 degree heat or the 500 foot inclines that I felt I had nothing left to give. But I had promised I would keep running and not walk, and so I kept that promise. We always have more to give than we think we do, or we allow ourselves to believe we do. Years ago I had a boxing coach that used to tell me (in fact yell at me) “you can do anything for 30 seconds.” Of course that was after I had been pushing for 5 or 7 or 10 minutes. But in any moment that we find ourselves wanting to give up, its a constant reminder that we can always do a little more if we care enough.
Once you believe you can do something or are someone, you can or are.
On my second run of the relay I looked down at my watch to check my time and distance. It was 3:30 in the morning, I had just hit the half-way mark of my run and I was pacing at 7 minute miles. I had never posted a sub-7 minute mile in any competitive race. Immediately I found myself telling myself I wasn’t a 6 minute mile runner. I quickly changed that language, and convinced myself that I could run the rest of the leg at a sub-7 pace. In that moment I became in my mind a runner that would finish that race at at sub-7 pace. I ended my 7 mile leg at 6:50/mile. It was a personal record and it taught me how much visualisation and self belief contribute to
Winning isn’t everything.
There are times we will show up and we realize we just aren’t going to win. Maybe we just didn’t win the day or the week or the month or even a year. More importantly, the goal should always be to enjoy the time we have invested into whatever we are doing with the people we are doing it with. Does it feel good to win? Certainly. But life isn’t meant to be won or lost. It’s meant to be lived and experienced. At times we need to disconnect from the win or loss and just experience.
Life is much like a 200 mile relay. There are fun legs and difficult legs. There are new relationships along the way. There are times to compete and times to just let it go. Some days you win and some days you don’t. And we are always able to accomplish what we truly believe that we will.