What marathon running can teach us about coping in journalism
Long-distance running taught me lessons in endurance, pacing and self-care
– 5 min read
This article is from our community spotlight section, written by and for our journalism community.
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For journalists, the past few years have brought little opportunity to rest. Our industry, its institutions and individuals are facing a protracted crisis on multiple fronts. The environment in which we are working has become more violent, more polarised and less secure.
Just last week, my colleague Phil Chetwynd wrote about how the unprecedented rise in threats against our community worldwide was casting a shadow over our ability to report factually.
From the conversations I’ve had with thousands of colleagues over the past few years, I have heard more overwhelm, burnout, moral injury than at any time in my career. We live in a world where crisis is now the new normal for journalism, so how do we cope when so much around us is unpredictable, stressful and has the potential to impact our mental health.
It doesn’t seem to matter where the journalists come from, be it Ukraine, the Middle East, the UK, the United States or Asia. People want to find ways to cope, to manage and maintain their resilience, to hear from others they're not alone, to reconnect with what it was that drew them to journalism, and be reminded of their sense of purpose.
After thinking about my conversations, my recovery from PTSD and how I’ve coped despite significant challenges in recent years, I came up with the idea of 7 Ps.
One of the things that has helped me most is running, which has led me to creating a marathon-style analogy, based around those. I’ll caveat this with the fact most people train for a marathon and, while we build up a resilience through our journalism, a crisis - by its nature - is something unexpected.
A marathon is also a finite distance (26.2 miles or 42.2 kilometres). We don’t know when these crises facing us as journalists will end. Like a marathon, they can feel endless. Like a marathon, they too will end.
Preparation
The key to marathon running is preparing well. We build up our fitness, our mileage base, our resilience. We may research the route. We get suitable kit, perhaps follow a plan. We rest, take in suitable food and fuel. We consider how we might cope mentally when our body tires.
