Recently I’ve been reading the book “Paula. My story so far” by Paula Radcliffe (the women’s marathon world record holder) which has been interesting on a lot of counts…not the least of which is how many injuries how many little health issues she’s had during her career.

One particular little section jumped out as a really good analogy. It’s about something Paula’s physio, Gerard Hartman, learnt from Kenyan marathon great Douglas Wakiihuri, when Douglas told Gerard that he believed the marathon was like a rose.
‘A rose, Douglas? What do you mean?’
‘In this way, Gerard: at the top of the rose you have a very beautiful flower. This is the race and it can be a very wonderful sight. Yet, along the way to the top, there are very many thorns. These are all the difficulties that must be overcome. Have you noticed, the more thorns, the more beautiful the rose?’