The One Comparison You Should Make In Running

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

Unless you’re comparing yourself to your former self, someone added, and I love that and have really tried to do just that—compare to my former self versus others.

As humans, we want to compare to get a sense of where we stand in society. We compare both upward and downward. Whether it’s looks, economic standing, the size of our house, really anything and everything, we compare. We compare upward and often feel inferior, or we compare downward and feel superior. Neither one helps you grow.

Keeping up with the Joneses is a real thing and can steal our joy, as Teddy Roosevelt pointed out. Running is no different. We have a friend whose easy pace is faster than our sprint, and we feel like we will never be as fast as them. Or we know someone who’s getting in 80+ miles a week, and it’s all we can do to get in 20. Or we know someone who’s going for a sub-3:00 marathon, a sub-20:00 5K, or a 5:00 mile, and we feel like an imposter saying we’re a runner too when those times seem unreachable.

Conversely, we also likely know someone who needs to lose some weight, who can’t run 10 steps without losing their breath, and who could never make it a mile. Now we feel a little bit better.

Neither scenario is healthy or good. And that’s why I love the addition to Theodore’s quote, “Unless you’re comparing to your former self.” Because here is the thing: you are uniquely you. Your situation, genetics, life experience, and biology all play a factor in who you are, and no one else is the same. So any comparison is going to be unfair to yourself because we are all coming from a different place. This is why the only comparison that makes sense and is fair is to yourself.

I have adopted this mindset and have talked about it in my latest YouTube video (https://youtu.be/IlNIS8-wFHk?si=CFDlSRlK9OQiHysc) I do set outcome goals. Currently, I am training and going for a sub-2:50:00 marathon, but at the end of the day, success for me is whether or not I executed my training and whether I improved. If so, then I’m happy regardless of what others do.

So stop comparing yourself, your running pace, your race time, to others, and compare yourself to where you were 6 months ago. Especially in this day of social media, where what you’re comparing to is someone’s highlight reel that they’ve edited to make themselves look good.

Below are some quotes that I love about comparison:

“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.” — Zen Shin

“The only comparison that matters is who you were yesterday.”

“If you’re always looking sideways, you’ll never move forward.”

Coach Cam