Sofico Marathon Ambassador Program

... Amazed me: The sheer volume of people taking part and the variety, all shapes and sizes, all walks of life were there. But on Race Day, on the course, over the finish line, we are the same, we are Runners There is no ‘stereo type’ amongst us social runners (we will kindly exclude the elite/professionals out of this discussion)

… Inspired me to keep going: Having put in the hours and kilometers, and the feeling of accomplishment at the finish line, getting in under my set target time – all has inspired me to keep running. At the moment we will stick to 10-15kilometers, but I am not say never on doing a half marathon again.. someday, somewhere in the future.

… Surprised me: Six months ago Race Day was some hazy event in the very distant future. Then we blinked and Surprise! We were huddling together against the wind at the start line - ready to go. Said it before, time was moving to a different beat throughout the whole journey.

… Filled me with Gratitude: (‘soppy’ alert for the more hardcore reader) Gratitude for the opportunity, for staying injury free to make it to Race Day, for having the structured training sessions, for having a coach at my side to support me every step and make sure I am prepared. Gratitude towards my fellow Ambassadors for the sense of community, the support and keeping the focus on.. Race Day!

… Floored me – literally! I was more than happy to merrily stay under the radar and do my own thing, but karma apparently had other plans. Around kilometer 18, a series of unfortunate events (that includes a fellow runner’s sudden complete stop, a runners-traffic jam, narrowing route and the famous Gent cobble stones!) resulted in me landing flat on my face – totally floored. BUT (Katy Perry’s Roar: )

‘ You held me down, but I got up,

already brushing off the dust…..’

In some ways, these past five months have been the most paradoxical of my life—they seemed to both drag and fly by simultaneously. So I thought, why not celebrate this milestone by sharing a few insights:

The most frustrating thing: Sorry boys, but getting out of a crop top after a long run without dislocating a joint.
Did any of my routines change? Oh definitely yes, Saturday mornings are no longer lazy (LAZI??) , slow starting with a cup of coffee lounging on the couch
Stretching my comfort zone boundaries: Running for 100+minutes is now just a standard weekend session time, not batting an eyelid when the session pops up on the schedule. Oh and 0 °C is not really too cold to run around outside (except if there are also gale force winds blowing)
Outlier sessions? Normal sessions are either running outside through the neighbourbood or on the gym’s treadmill. The Not-So-Normal sessions (so far) were running on the treadmill on an cruise liner amid Storm Bert waging war on the ocean waves and then the Christmas and New Year’s days runs. Not the normal way we usually spend the Festive Days 😊
Biggest angry swearing moment: after first 2hour run, I had a watch/ technology malfunction and accidentally deleted the complete session, stats and all, before it could upload … if it is not on the watch it did not happen. I was slightly upset …
Last but not least: Jellybeans and Gummy bears really don’t like traveling together in one plastic bag in your jacket pocket on a long run.

And to help you power through this final stretch, check out this video featuring two former ambassadors sharing their best tips and tricks for new (and future?) ambassadors. Some golden nuggets of wisdom in there, you don’t want to miss it!

So here we are, two months into our Ambassador 2025 training program! In earlier blogs my fellow Ambassadors have shared with you how our journey started way back in October – well worth a read if you have missed it 😊 How can I describe my last couple of weeks? “It has been a very long eight weeks that absolutely flew by” would be one way ……For me the biggest challenge so far was to align mind and body, a mindset adjustment.

Pinky and the Brain: At the start of the program Brain and Brawn realized that a good long talk was needed. Brain’s attitude was: “YEAHHHH let’s go, we can do this!!” while Brawn was more like “Errhmm yeah, no let’s walk instead.. walking is nice, we like walking”. Brain realized that Brawn got a bit bored after a while. Long story short, after a few trial and error conversations, the team is now working together and we are completing each of our training sessions with well, almost a smile.

Head-to-head: Part of my regular outside route overlaps with that of a Driving School. One morning a week of four ago, I was coming up to a T-junction. I noticed a car with a learner driver rolling in beside me. The poor youngster had the steering wheel in a vice grip, white fingers, white frightened face and 100% solely focused on the upcoming turn. We were approaching the junction at the same speed of 8km/h (or 5m/h in Imperial speak). Nervous few head-to-head meters but I made it around the corner first with a clean get away.(On the return run the learner was luckily not still at the junction.)

But ‘getting away’ can be tricky sometimes. Autumn leaves are beautiful and creates amazing yellow, orange and golden patches under their trees on the side walks and paths. But don’t let that fool you, they are sneaky little blighters, slippery as can be when you run over them. You can easily end up looking like a Disney character on ice if you are not careful – just saying…

Peek-a-boo: So part of the Brain and Brawn’s agreement was to play a game while out running, to see if I can ‘connect’ with my fellow outsiders. Fellow outsiders come in all shapes and sizes: the serious runners, social joggers, the ploggers or stroller-rollers, the dog walkers, pullers of pushers. The aim of the game is to get at least a 50% hit rate of either eye contact, nod of the head, hand raise or ‘Hi’. Some sessions we hit target and some we don’t. It is like doing people watching in fast forward mode.

If you have one take away off all my waffling above, let it be that it is important to be where you are, be present in your moment otherwise you may miss your life