It's a long long way..

Well, its been a while. Much like everyone else, the last 2 or so years has been a bit of a blur. Apart from the covid madness, and just 3 lockdowns till Christmas, work was also pretty intense. Throw a first child, moving house, and everything else into the mix, running slipped down the priority list. Gone were the days where I'd depart at 10:30PM for a quick 5K to wind down, and in its place was a casual 7PM power nap. Adulting is hard. 

The harsh reality is this that adulting is hard, and will always be hard. You can't plan your life like clockwork, and that's ok. While creating an online running community has always been a dream of mine, I got sucked into agency land, working dawn till dusk. I dedicated myself to making other people's dreams come through, all the while, idea's I've had for the past 10-15 years are gathering dust. The were rapidly changing their status from dreams and aspirations to regret and anger.

The same can be said for my running. I went from running sub 20 min 5K and being an ok casual runner, to being out of breath after running a 5K in 27 minutes. I know full well that 27 minutes is a great time, and I have helped people to break the 30 min mark for 5k. The thrill and joy they get is every bit as good as any other achievement. What it showed me however, is we can't take our fitness or our health for granted. The person running 30 minutes has to keep training and working every bit as much as the person running 25 minutes, or 20 minutes. It showed me the importance of focusing on your health first, and times will come later.

As with most things, I don't do things by half measure. All in the space of one weekend, I decided that working in an agency was no longer for me, and left a good friend of mine in charge to keep growing Trigger Media. I decided that I was going to train properly, get Run Republic going, and focus on my health, and spending time with my family. I am into my second week of my new life, and I am loving every minute of it.

My goal is to get back to being healthy, and helping people. I'm currently running 5K in around 25 minutes, but know that work needs to be done to speed up. It won't be easy, but I'll get there.

While I hope to have loads of blogs on here from other people, sharing their stories, hopefully inspiring people, making people know they are not alone, and other people are experiencing either the same, or issues which are very similar to their issues, I want to have a few take aways from my blogs.

TAKEAWAY

I focused 90% of my energy over the past 3-4 years setting up, and growing a digital agency. I neglected my health, friends, and just focused on clients. While I met some great people, and created some great solutions, ultimately I sacrificed my own health and happiness. We all need stability to pay the bills, mortgages, and childcare, but life is too short to do something that makes you unhappy.

Much of my personal approach to running is not just helping people get the times they want, but to focus first on their health, and then the times will follow. Before you build, the foundation must be solid, and I want to help people get the foundations right.

If you have any questions, or want to get involved, just send us a DM on social media or email paddy@runrepublic.com!