Chatting to my running Coach one evening after training, I asked him just how long it would take for me to run faster. He gave me the cheesiest of answers. “Bron, it’s like the artist who works on a marble sculpture. It takes time. Every time you get out there and run, we’re chipping away at that statue.” Pffft, I thought.

But after just 3 months of hard training, I’m starting to see the sculpture forming…

When I started, I was the stone with lots of unwanted rock and baggage. Over the weeks, the Coach has been busy with the “roughing out” stage of the sculpting process by supplying me with a training schedule which toggles between easy runs and quality training.

Using a chisel, texture is being added every time I step out on to the track and road to run. It may not seem like a lot when you’re counting mere seconds, but my running log book has shown me just how far this art work has come.

The warm up lap before we train used to take me a good 25 minutes to complete, it now takes me on average 17 minutes. I used to run 400m in 2:54, then 2:50, 2:42; 2:31 and now I’m clocking 2:26. I even ran (and did not walk) 15,2kms on a cool Monday evening recently as a support to a fellow runner training for Tough One.  I can even almost touch my toes!

If I have to honestly look back to where I was when I started and to where I am today, it a huge difference.

My Coach, the sculptor, has changed me, the stone, from a rough block into the general shape of an un-finished statue. Various tools are now being used to enhance this shape into its final form. The chipping away takes time but it has to be right. You can’t rush these things but the wait is so worth it!

We often don’t take time to reflect on the work we’ve put in because we’re so focussed on the goal ahead. But to really appreciate our efforts, it helps to pause every so often, catch our breaths and take stock.

The final stage of the carving process is polishing. I’ve got a long way to go ’till I get to this stage, but I’m not rushing things. Remember Bron, you’re like a marble sculpture.