This is going to be a tough couple of months coming up for me.

Personally.

Now this isn’t anything other than the fact I will be missing out on racing and pushing myself through mud, over hills, and attempting obstacles.

Next week I go in for part two and hopefully the last part to getting this hip fixed, but what it does mean is that I won’t be able to run for 12 weeks, 6 weeks or so of recovery and mobility work then I start to load it.

Now, the bit that is going to be hard is this year I had a lot of things I was aiming for, 2 full Spartan Race weekends, out to Sparta in Nov for the World Champs, alongside a couple of ultras and full-on push myself mentally more than physically.

All of that will come and most has been pushed back to next year.

The thing here is next weekend is the first race weekend and whilst I am at home using a crutch to get around they will be running around the fields of henley climbing over things, hanging off things and just having a blast.

I will miss it.

I will be thinking about it all weekend.

I love it, not just the racing but the community out on the courses where everyone supports everyone and just helps each other to get around.

The last few years I have been doing these competitively but last year got pushed back to this year because of the first op.

So, once again I will be missing from the courses on the first 3 weekends during the spartan calendar in the UK, the one in August will be when I am allowed to start running.

My target now is Oct and the weekend there and my aim is to get around all 3 races over the weekend.

With everything else, it’s been pushed back till next year, which is going to be a busy one.

I will be hitting half a century and now will have one hell of a competition year, hoping to finish out in Sparta but then I still have unfinished business out in the desert.

So will I get back out for that?

Who knows.

One thing I do know is I will miss it this year, it’s tough knowing I need to do this because I want to be able to do it for longer.

However, knowing that once again things are pushed back and delayed.

Being a Spartan Ambassador (Discount code available if you want) I’m also in a WhatsApp group, so just reading everyone’s excitement about the upcoming races, etc can be tough but that is just me being selfish.

It’s great to see though and I hope they all have a cracking weekend.

But I will miss it.

Now, there is a reason for this, not just somewhere for me to let the thoughts that are popping out of my head.

There is a lesson here for everyone.

We all have goals.

Sometimes along that journey, we end up hitting walls and the journey is delayed or sent off track.

Do we give up?

Do we just go fuck it, I’m done, and stop.

No.

We stand up and go ok this is what is now in front of me, the goal is still the goal it’s just going to take longer to get there.

Sometimes we get there really quickly but then sometimes we need to take our time to achieve what we want.

Things come along to test us, to see how we cope with things.

We continue to learn though and as long as you keep that goal in mind you will get there.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get somewhere as long as you get there.

Whether you run 5k in 14 minutes or 40 minutes it doesn’t matter if you ran 5k.

The end goal is the important thing.

For me, it’s going to be a physically and mentally demanding next year, this year more mentally demanding.

Allowing myself the recovery that is needed to get me back where I want to be.