“My name is Jane and I suffer from Race Rage”

Disclaimer: The following is intended for entertainment purposes only

Brian Ó Murchú interview with Jane ‘Lightening Bolt’ Reegan

I recently met up with Jane ‘Lighting Bolt’ Reegan, and she was surprisingly candid about the reasons for taking a year out from racing recently, and wanting to dispel rumours of injury or loss of motivation. The following in an excerpt of our interview:

I was always a very competitive person, and growing up I knew that I could become an elite athlete. After trying a number of sports it took me a while to find which sport would be the one I would excel at. When I first tried running I wanted to be a sprinter. I was very good at acceleration over 5 meters but I didn’t have the speed to be a sprinter. Having that 5 meters acceleration was probably what kept me in field sports for so long. When I started running, I missed the agility part of field sports. So when I discovered trail and mountain running, I knew this was the sport I had been searching for.

What I additionally discovered and to my detriment, was that I also missed the physicality of team sports. I was getting very worked up during a race, and after I’d finish, even if I did well in the race, instead of glowing in the achievement I would find myself angry and wanting to vent. Then one race, there wasn’t an obvious marker on one of the corners. Even though I didn’t lose any time and I went the correct way, the uncertainty put me over the edge. When I finished, I let the race director have it. I cringe now when I think about it, but things would get worse before they would get better. It was the first step on a slippery slope and I started berating course marshals, registration officials, timekeepers for anything and everything. It was when I started getting DQ’d for abusing race officials that I realised the explosive side of me was getting too much, I was feeling overwhelmed and I had to seek help if I was to continue in this sport.

I took a full year out from racing, I needed to detach myself from the situation. There were times when I thought I would just hang up the running shoes, but deep down I really loved trail running. I just needed to get my race rage under control. I kept training the whole year and I didn’t race, additionally I needed to work on me and I took the time to do that. I needed to if I was to race again.

I use to think that if I turn a wrong turn in a mountain race, it wasn’t because I didn’t recce the course, it was because the race officials were incompetent not to know that a turn needed a marshal or more markings. I use to think that I wouldn’t have to get so angry if they just made smarter decisions. During the first few months out, I made the effort to try to contact as many of the race officials as possible that I had verbally abused to offer them an apology. I managed to meet a few face-to-face. It was part of a learning curb of how my race rage was impacting on others.

After 12 months I started to think about racing again and I was very nervous about my first race back. I had learnt about my triggers and developed coping techniques, but I was still concerned about how I would do again in an actual race environment. I didn’t know if it was too soon and I didn’t want to fall off the wagon, so to speak. It wasn’t easy and I still have difficult moments, but I am glad to say I’ve managed to turn things around and manage my race rage. It is still there, it never goes away completely. The key for me is managing it and being aware of the warning signs. As part of my rehabilitation I am now an advocate of ‘give respect, get respect’.

‘Not getting out on the trail is just a temporary phase’

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!