If I had a dollar for every time someone said this to me, I’d be retired already. I probably wouldn’t because I would still be coaching because I love helping people achieve amazing things and unlocking their latent potential. You get the point though.
I’m a fairly heavy-set guy in that I’m 175cm / 5’9’’ and weigh 78.5kg / 171lb (thanks Google for the help with the conversion). I am by no means built like a world-class marathoner or a typical distance runner. I’ve consistently weighed around this weight for the past 10 years peaking at a whopping 88kg / 194lb #LordSwoldemort. According to the BMI calculator, at my current weight, I get a score of 25.6 which technically makes me "overweight". Now I know this is simply an indicator and should not be viewed in isolation and that genetically, I just happen to carry a fair bit of muscle mass in my upper body too. So when I do meet people for the first time I often hear the phrase “Well you don’t look like a runner”. Now, back when my ego was as fragile as porcelain, this used to offend me, however, I’ve learned to embrace this phrase with a warm hug.
Because despite not “looking like a runner”, whatever that means anyway, I’ve been able to run some great PBs (for me - this is important and will be another post on its own) over the years that I do feel very proud of. Some of these include running 100km in 14 hours in the beautiful and brutal race that is Ultra Trail Cape Town, a marathon PB of 2h46min, a half marathon PB of 77min and a 5K best of 16min39sec. The point of this is not to try and say “look at me and look how amazing I am” - there are plenty of runners out there who are very much faster than me and that’s awesome. I’m no elite athlete, but the point I’m trying to make is a simple one - there’s no perfect look for a runner and you can accomplish awesome things despite "not looking like a runner". Yes, you can watch the likes of Eliud Kipchoge, the world's greatest marathoner and say his physique, genetics, running gait etc. looks perfect but the reality is that he is who he is and you are you. Comparison will steal days off of your life if you let it.
So if you’re starting out in your running journey, or maybe you’ve been running a while already, and someone tells you, “You don’t look like a runner”, simply thank them and keep on running. Because at the end of the day, by showing up day after day and running, you are a runner regardless of what you look like. And it’s through this process that you too can discover that latent potential that is within you, quietly waiting for you to bring it to the surface.
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