Positive thinking - or how to live with occasional incompetence

george's picture

A London Marathon place is a pretty big deal for any keen runner, so you wouldn’t normally expect a successful applicant to lose out on a place because of failure to pay the entry fee, but as I found out just last Tuesday that is exactly what I managed to do. That means that since last October I have been running my socks off, blissfully unaware that I had already lost my place!

So how did I manage that? OK, I admit I sometimes walk in to a room and forget why I have gone there, and can sometimes spend 30 minutes looking for my car keys but I don’t normally forget the more important things like putting my trousers on in the morning or cooking raw meat, so how could I not pay for my marathon place? I don’t know the answer, in fact I can’t remember what I was thinking when I read the instructions for payment which came in September; it was either “Oh that doesn’t affect me because I have already paid” or “I must look out for the email telling me how to pay”, but either way I never saw an email, and I was off out of the front door preparing for what was going to be a great occasion. Big mistake.

Last Monday I mentioned to a fellow London marathon runner that I was surprised that I hadn’t received my final instructions, and when he mentioned that he had received his weeks ago I started to get worried. I phoned Virgin and they told me that they had never received my money so I didn’t have a place. It wasn't a great feeling I have to say (!). I couldn’t understand this at all, I was sure they had received all my details, but now after doing some digging I do understand what happened and I have found the 2 emails they sent me telling me they had not received my money, one went straight to my junk email and the other I didn’t notice amongst the dozens of London marathon email Newsletters that come through.

So how do I feel about it? Well for the first few days I was distraught, and I am still thinking about it most of the time; I think this posting is a partial attempt to get over the rotten feeling, but I am beginning to see the positive side of things: I don’t feel at all bitter about all the training I did – I enjoyed every minute of it; I am also 100% sure that I shouldn’t have run it anyway, I have been dogged with suspected shin splints for the last few weeks and the last run I did I had to give up after 7 miles; and, however bad I feel about it now is nothing to what I would feel if I was fully fit and training had gone well.

So what do I do to make sure it does not happen again? Well apart from the obvious thing of changing my junk email settings I basically have to remember not to forget things in the future. How can I be more positive about my occasional forgetfulness? Well to be more positive I believe I have to remember all the things that I have not forgotten and to remember all the times when I might have forgotten something but I haven’t. I think that might help.
I will be feeling some embarrassment when I next come to the club so if you could find it within yourselves to give me a mildly sympathetic pat on the back instead of an uncontrollable snigger I will be happy to buy you a pint Smiling .

Cheers

George
P.S. Many congratulations to Alex on the birth of her baby!