58: Tim Vincent – Sydney Marathon and the Art of Never Giving Up

Given the strength of our marathon runners at the moment in Australia, and having just had Hafeez break the Australian record as well, which is incredible to see another ASICS athlete, what do you think you would need to run to, to make that team for LA?

That, I think, yeah, like, to be honest, that's currently, like, probably outside of, uh, where I am, so I actually don't know.

I just hope we get three Australians on the team, which I'm confident we can.

It's just so competitive globally to get three in that quota.

Yeah.

It, it should be around, like I actually think it might be around 2:06 this time.

Mm.

Um, 2:06 and change, um, to get our three Aussies on that team.

Yeah, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter the numbers.

I, I, I hope we can get three there, um, on the men's side of things.

But once again, I, I haven't really thought too much about time as such, 'cause it, it is points-based, our system, and then even as a holistic big picture, I try not to get caught up in this stuff too much, 'cause I, I want to relate it back to, like, why do I do this sport? What do I want out of this sport? And even, this could sound a bit weird, but, like, I'm starting to think about, like, what boxes I want to tick before I leave the sport.

Like, I've got-

Mm.

Um, I've got hopefully a decent amount more time left, but I've just started to get into more of a mindset in that sense.

Like, as a, I'm not 18 anymore, and I've noticed how quick 18 to 28, I'm about to turn 28, so how quick that's gone.

And not many people would get 38.

So it's like, okay, let's start thinking about some of these plans.

And for me, a big one is actually just around, I want to feel as if I've given everything, and what does giving everything look like? Finishing as high up in a quota position as what I could, and have given, like traveled to races, tried as hard as I could in those windows, and gone, "Cool, I came XYZ position," and I can tell my grandkids one day that, "Hey, I did that.

I gave it everything, and I didn't leave the sport 'cause of an injury or whatnot." Like, I w- really want to have a positive experience when my time comes to leave and go, "That's pretty cool.

I gave that everything and I finished here, or I achieved XYZ," or, "If I'm not gonna achieve this, uh, why am I not gonna achieve it?"

Yeah.

Type thing.

Yeah.

They talk about open-ended goal setting or nonspecific goal setting, and how that can actually help you perform at a higher level, because you're not limiting yourself to, to a number or a, you know, something really specific.

And so I think leaving that a, a bit open for yourself, but also thinking about what you want from the sport gives you so much bandwidth to achieve stuff.