I had a brand identity crisis last week. It occurred whilst I was running a marathon.
26.2 miles throws up a lot of time to ponder, analyse and strategise (unless you happen to be Eliud Kipchoge, who is efficient enough to be back to base for a reasonably timed breakfast). A brand identity crisis at mile 15 is preferable to an Achilles crisis or hitting the dreaded ‘wall’ however, so I took it in good humour and plodded onwards. Central to this crisis was the following question:
Am I a proper runner yet?
Despite the 6 months of training and more miles than I can recall, the answer had to be no. By mile 16 I had reconfirmed to myself that proper runners have a different agenda. They do it for speed, to break a personal best, to win, or by way of preparation for another looming long distance event. I could claim none of these things. I was running my first marathon just to prove to myself I could do the distance and finish. There was nothing competitive about it. A proper runner has a bigger agenda. By 16.5 I had renamed myself a slacker and continued to proceed forwards at the pace of a middle-aged New Forest donkey.
The personal brand identity worm-can was open though. It’s the label versus truth and essence thing. My friends think I am a runner. My commitment to getting the job done would suggest I might be a runner. And yet, the truth in my head presented something else – a niggling doubt based on a comparison with athletes with a different agenda that led me to conclude I fall short. (Enter the beauty of Parkrun incidentally – everyone has it in them to be the runner they choose to be).
Then it hit me (not the wall thankfully). This is all about how I choose to define ‘running’ and my relationship with it and how I bundle that up and execute. By mile 19 glycogen stores may have been low, but I was bouncing off the Forest ponies in sheer glee – yes, clearly what I needed to do between now and the finish line was define my model for running. Ah, the sheer joy of the last 7 miles became clear. I didn’t need salt and mineral rehydration. I needed a little bit of ‘phase 2 strategy development‘ to get it over the line and reposition my relationship with running. A brand identity for slackers, if you will.
As I made it through the last 0.5 home stretch in to the marathon village (surprisingly with another 5 miles or so in the legs), my runner’s brand identity had become clear. Something else was very clear too – never again. But just the once I loved all 26.2 of it and the identity it gave me.
RUNNING – A SLACKER’S PERSPECTIVE
Vision: a world where cyclists are noticeably absent from A, B and country roads. And tracks.
Purpose: finish the bugger – upright. (And leave only footprints behind doing it…)
Big idea: running lots permits more eating
Personality: minimal (runners can bore for England)
Tone of Voice: faintly nauseated and impaired.
