Three months ago, I ran my first ever (and likely last ever) full marathon. I’m surprised that what I considered to be such an individual sport taught me so much about team dynamics. The ten months training journey, and the race itself, provided unexpected insights that can be easily be applied to a team setting in a professional organisation. It demonstrated the importance of transparency in goal setting with the whole team, collaboration in difficult times, celebrating achievements as a group and opening up to discuss your fears and apprehensions rather than keeping them locked up inside. Let’s look at each of these considering how they influence a positive team culture.
Setting Goals and Planning with the Team
My New Year’s resolution in January 2023 was to run a marathon. I have been running my entire life, more or less. However, during COVID I injured my knee and most of the medics I visited told me to forget about running and find a different sport to engage in.
You’re probably thinking here that’s what inspired me. Maybe it did eventually, but initially it devastated me. I spent weeks crying and feeling sorry for myself. My identity has always been keenly attached to being an athlete. Not being able to run, was a form of losing my identity. Which many of us know can be frightful.
So after two years of not running, I decided the time had come to prove to myself that I was capable of running the 42km marathon. I had been working in the gym to strengthen my leg muscles to support my knee, and I’d been seeing a physiotherapist just about every week.
It was time to set clear goals and objectives, as you would with any project team. I watched zillions of YouTube videos, read several books and listened to some very boring podcasts, on how to approach running a marathon. I realised that the first thing I needed to do was set realistic goals and a milestones. However, not on my own, ideally with the full team of people surrounding and supporting me.
Setting milestones for positive team dynamics
I chose a marathon that fell on my birthday, in November, which gave me about 10 months to prepare for. I decided to run the Nice to Cannes marathon along the sunny southern coast of France. It was a birthday present to myself.
I had two major milestones to reach before really engaging in heavy training. A 10km run in February and a half-marathon in April. Once the half-marathon was complete, I had an idea of what time I could run in 21 km. This was the basis for setting a marathon pace and therefore a training pace. I felt ready and purchased a 16-week training plan for the marathon preparation.
Throughout the entire journey, I had three main team members. The team dynamics revolved mostly around these three people. I had been working very closely with a physiotherapist since the knee injury. Once I decided that I was ready to start training for the marathon, we discussed the best way to reach our objectives. Obviously without injuring myself again. We discussed the best approach all round. Without him, I could not have made it past the first month of training. As soon as I ached somewhere, he “fixed” me and ensured I didn’t lose morale or sight of the objective.
Reliablity and accountability
I also has an important team member as a nutritionist. He gave me a training diet in June to help me during the extenuating training, ensuring I could work hard but also recover well. I had to take on accountability of following the regime, but whenever I felt like going off track, I thought that I’d disappoint him, and that’s what kept me on track.
The third team member was my husband. He helped me with the psychological training. Helping me through the moments when I thought it was all too hard running through the Italian summer with 30°C+ temperatures. The Sunday runs had to be long 30-37km. He would run at least 10 of those km with me nearly every Sunday to make the load seem a little lighter. I had other “extended” team members along the way, which we will soon see.
The three of them helped me along journey, spurring me on, checking that my weekly objectives were accurate, not too challenging and not too easy to achieve. In hindsight, when it came to objective setting, where I could have improved, was to actually set my final race day objective with the team. I had set an objective (i.e. to run it in 3 hours 45 minutes) but I didn’t really discuss it with anybody, it was kept inside. Likely because I was afraid that if I didn’t make it people might laugh at me or tell me that I always set my standards too high, the usual.
Transparency creates accountability
To create healthy team dynamics, I should have discussed this openly with the team. If you tell your colleagues what your objectives and aspirations are, they not only can help you achieve them by knowing what you are challenged by and understanding when you may need some support, but more importantly, they can help you set milestones that are realistic rather than too challenging or not challenging enough. This encourages accountability on all sides.
Setting milestones transparently with the team shows your colleagues that you trust them and their knowledge. It allows you to involve them. This enhances collaboration and team spirit because they all feel more involved, take on accountability, will be more motivated to help and take on important roles.
Endurance and Perseverance
We know that mental challenges are supposed to make us stronger. I realised that although my body was exhausted, those runs actually revitalised me. My mind was never clearer than when I was out training and sweating hard. It was during those sessions that my creativity surged and my plans for client workshops and life in general lost their fuzziness and became clear.
Endurance has always been my strong point, but as with any team project, there are moments when your motivation is at rock bottom because you’ve encountered a brick wall. Imagine working on a project and you get setback after setback. Without the team, it is sometimes hard to get back on your feet. Positive team dynamics are what motivate you to supporting one another.
Just three weeks before the marathon start, I was out training and did the worst run of the year. I was on a business trip, and had to do a 27km run, in a location that I didn’t know well. It was stinking hot, 34 degrees Celsius at 8:30am, no water fountains anywhere. By km 13 I was almost in tears, breathing heavily, dehydrated and thinking I wasn’t going to finish the run. In fact, I didn’t. I made it to about only 20km and had to stop in insufferable pain.
When motivation lacks , positive team dynamics come to the rescue
Did I want to pull out of the marathon? Yes. I was three weeks away from reaching my goal and I was quite convinced I was going to fail. I had put myself through excruciating hours of training. My 33km Sunday runs which took me away from friends and family were tormenting. On every one of those runs, I asked myself at around km 10, why I was doing this to myself. I would get home close to tears, looking awfully dishevelled, feeling very embarrassed.
It’s when you’re down and losing confidence, without any energy for being creative that your team supports you the most. The team can give you the mental fortitude you need to overcome the hurdles. I always mentioned my down moments to the people around me who know me well and know how dedicated I am. They were able to put me back on the right track each time, knowing what I needed to hear to refocus.
Support and Collaboration
Without them it would have been very hard to pick up and start again each time. A team where psychological safety prevails is one where individuals can express themselves freely without feeling they are going to be laughed at or blamed. Individuals would also understand when hyperbole is appreciated or despised. Telling someone they are awesome when they really think they have nothing more to offer does not always help. You need to know the communication techniques of your team and know when “super” and “wonderful” are appreciated and when they aggravate. Team members can then take risks and admit to their mistakes without feeling they have been defeated.
Team support and collaboration reached its height in those crucial moments. The last two weeks showed me how much support I had from the group of people I was working with. Friends also wanted to make sure I was looking after myself and that I’d be ready for the big day. This in turn created even more trust.
Sometimes it’s not easy providing support to our colleagues especially if they seem to not need it. That’s probably the most important time to offer it. It can start off very easily with a very simple non-threatening question, “How are you today?” Don’t accept, “I’m fine,” as an answer. Ask further, without appearing patronising. Ask open questions. “How is XYZ coming along. What challenges are you currently facing?”
Understanding when to offer help to your team
I was able to express myself to what I considered at that stage to be my team. As the marathon approached, friends and family became excited for me. The team dynamics changed as they also became members of the team. They would ensure that I was eating well even when we ate out together, always checking that I ate my salads and protein. While on a client workshop, a work colleague was adamant that I receive all my macro nutrients. Each time she asked me what I had eaten for lunch and dinner she made me smile. We all know how much a smile can energize us. It spurred me on to be the best I could.
If you do not express your angst and worries to your team members, how are they supposed to support you? If you always tell them that everything is fine, they cannot help you work on what is actually not fine. Sometimes it just takes a second mind to help problem solve issues that alone seem unsurmountable.
Reaching the objective
We arrived in Nice the evening before the marathon, the day before my birthday and it was pouring rain. My heart felt heavy. I had trained in a bit of rain, but nothing like what I was experiencing that evening. I started to think of the negative impacts (was I just trying to find excuses for a bad result?). “I won’t reach my goal because my shoes will be soaking wet and very heavy.” Excuses, excuses.
Finally, I looked around for positive elements that would help me sleep well and find my confidence. Above my hotel bed was a black and white picture of Audrey Hepburn. She is my idol. I had her looking over my shoulder all night. I felt then that the next day was going to go well. At that stage, I finally decided that I had put in all the hard work and I was just going to go out and enjoy the day. Que sera sera.
The big day came. I woke up to find the sun shining brightly through my hotel window. There were messages in my WhatsApp from friends wishing me luck wanting to know how they could follow me along the way. I was energized. It was an extraordinary morning. For the first 32km I felt as though I was flying. I felt light, the sun was shining and I felt unstoppable.
Everyone has a role to play
Team dynamics changed once again. The team had now grown to include the volunteers who were supporting us at the start of the race and the spectators all along the coast cheering us all on. It was energising to see other runners looking tired and yet still making it to the next milestone. Solo work can be satisfying because you know that the success is yours alone, but collaboration beats solo work any time in my eyes. Without all the support from those around me, I may never have even arrived at the start line, let alone reached my desired finish time.
As km32 my legs felt heavy. But I had made it this far, I was not going to let my heavy legs stop me. I trudged on and reached the final km almost laughing with joy as I passed the finish line at 3:35:9.
What is success without being able to celebrate it with the rest of the team? One of the first people I contacted at the end of the race, was my physiotherapist. He had sat with me and massaged me through tears, anger, frustrations and a whole lot of moments where I was feeling sorry for myself. He was ecstatic at the result and we celebrated together.
Celebrate milestones with your team
Celebrating milestones with your colleagues, fosters a sense of camaraderie and motivates team members to continue striving for success.
My husband was joyous that the mad Sunday morning trainings were over and we could enjoy a plentiful and satisfying breakfast together, not to mention a glass of red wine with dinner.
Celebrating team achievements in the workplace is paramount to supporting your colleagues. It gives them insight about what role they play in the overall organisation. Knowing that without each individual playing their part, the team cannot function as a whole, and without the team support individuals stifle to achieve their own individual milestones.
Teamwork and support are essential for achieving success, both in running a marathon and in a professional setting. Celebrating small achievements and accomplishments fosters a culture of belonging and support which in turn helps the team thrive.
What are your experiences related to team support and collaboration and how it impacts an individual’s sense of self-worth? Feel free to connect with me if you’d like to discuss further.
