Guest Post: Halloween ...by Pat Walsh

 ** Halloween **

What is the scariest thing about this coming weekend. Is it the hordes of children in costume roaming the streets or is it the fact the year is drawing to a close and as a runner you wonder what did you do? If like me, you feel underwhelmed by what you achieved, I suppose there is still time to rectify it and get some sense of purpose come years end. We won’t get a second chance at 2026.

Maybe the lesson is to do stuff and not dream or procrastinate about it. Take part, go for it, what is to lose. If you don’t try you can’t succeed, if you don’t even bother trying then you need to have a chat with yourself. There are many who commit may end up walking a major challenge towards the end or get injured in the training process. That showed intent, a purpose, a goal. Don’t ever be afraid to try. 

- “The person in the arena, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly” -

Don’t worry what anyone else thinks. Some of the best critics never get off the couch. Their opinion is worthless. Only the fellow runner in the competition that supports and encourages you is your true friend. Social media is full of bluffs, fakes, AI enhancements to make you feel inadequate. Be you and proud of you. You are the only one that matters anyway. Say: I ran today.

- “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.” -

I look back on the Covid times when we could do nothing and we all said once it was over we would change our ways and make life more meaningful. Instead for many the hamster wheel of existence is spinning faster than ever with more commitments and less personal time. What happened our promises to ourselves?

Pick one thing you would like to do before New Years Eve. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering or life changing. It is a simple goal to prove I'm alive and 2026 was a good year. If it is running around your neighbourhood in a scary Halloween costume then so be it. If it a parkrun 5k somewhere nice, or a local charity event or one of the many longer races that pop up this time of year. 

Make it your goal, don’t be scared or frightened of Halloween. 

-- quotes are from Roosevelt – Man in the Arena speech 1910

Have a lovely weekend.

#pwr