Disclaimer: The following is intended for entertainment purposes only
Brian Ó Murchú interview with Daisy ‘Boulder’ O’Kelly
I recently met up with Daisy ‘Boulder’ O’Kelly, trail runner and group facilitator who started a support group for runners who temporarily can’t get out on the trail. The following is an except:
I am a trail runner and I love lacing up and getting out for a run, EVERYday! But what happens when you can’t do that? Through no fault of your own, you can get ill, have a fall during a race, pick up a running injury, maybe a non-running injury, a ban or sometimes with work/family commitments a run is just not possible. One non-running day is manageable, but a prolonged no-run period can leave you with a feeling the whole of the day that you’ve forgotten to do something. In the early part it’s hard to get to sleep because you’ve so much unused energy, but after a while this can go the opposite way and you sleep too much deflating energy levels. They say your identity is what you do, and my ability to run was taken away from me for a time through injury. Although it’s easy to say it was temporary, I didn’t see it that way at the time and I did things like removing from view all my finishers medals off my ‘running’ shelf. There are wider implications too of not running. I found I lost touch with my running friends as I could no longer join up for group runs. It feels very fickle in that other runners seem to stop being your friend if you cant run with them and that was difficult for me. This was my experience of a prolonged time not being able to get out on the trail and as a psychologist I felt there was a big need to reach out a hand of support to others in similar situations who temporarily couldn’t express their trail running identity.
I think the biggest thing people get from coming to the support group is that people leave saying they don’t feel so alone or isolated, and it isn’t just them. There is a pattern of behaviour here and it is about becoming aware of this. The more a runner engages in the group the more they can benefit from this growing awareness. Some people don’t realise the structure running gives to their day until they hit a non-running phase. Some of the common questions and struggles include: Does anyone else struggle to know what to do with all this ‘extra-time’? What was my life like before I started running? What kind of things do non-runners do? Is what I’m doing normal?
I find that if trail runners can’t run, they don’t want to do another sport to compensate for fitness. Sometimes we get triathles coming to the group and they often offer an extra challenge, because they want to tell the injured runner to cross-train to keep their fitness up. This approach doesn’t recognise and validate the runners struggle with the temporary loss of their trail running identity, ie not being able to run.
Of some of the topics that come up in the group diet can be a controversial subject. Some people put on weight, others lose their appetite somewhat. Our view is that we don’t judge people who do or don’t eat diary, meat and supplements, the aim of our group is to support the emotional needs of the runner. We try to gently remind group members that this type of information exchange is more suited to outside the group.
We get a few people who can’t race because they’re severing a ban for ‘race rage’ or other reasons. They still train, but their goal of specific races have been removed. I offer to work one-on-one with these people in a very structured way as well as them being part of the group.
If anyone is hesitant about joining our support group I would suggest to think of the group like a first aid station, by way of support our aim is that that you can resume your running with greater confidence, motivation and fearlessness. What I can never emphasis enough is that not being able to run is just a temporary phase!
murchubrian 