Never again – until the next time!!

Having recently upped my personal best in running a Marathon (known as a "PB"), this article that looks at what I have learnt and how I use this learning every day as a hotelier continually striving for a PB in the operation.

Achieving a PB performance in a Marathon requires dogged determination, both in physical fitness and perhaps more importantly, mental strength. As a runner since the age of six and a half, I was 50 before I contemplated my first Marathon. This was London in 2005 and I completed it in a time of 4:28:57. I recently broke my own record again and my PB now stands at 3:56:24.

Running, and particularly Marathon running, is a solitary sport - it is you against yourself. However, one seeks solace and support from fellow runners. Advice and guidance from professionals in the sport to help you achieve optimum performance is crucial. The support and camaraderie of a club is also important to benchmark your performance against runners of a similar standard or capacity, as well as those who are faster or with better technique.

Training and preparation is essential and a critical success factor. As in other fields, there is a plethora of opinion – the trick is in sifting and sorting what is appropriate for you and your circumstances. The time commitment to 'putting in the miles' is massive and time spent apart from other commitments such as family and friends requires strict planning and dedication. It is a single-minded determination that pushes you (particularly when one ventures out on bitterly cold winter morning) beyond the limits and boundaries of normal, sane people; to keep going when your body screams at you to stop – to have the mindset and will power to keep digging deeper until you have no more to give.

Some choose to listen to their iPod or similar, when running. I use the time for meditation (not the cross legged sitting on the floor type!) to set my mind free to explore those places we tend not to visit sufficiently in our busy lives. Thinking creative thoughts and ideas that inspire you, or just to letting your mind roam free away from phones, emails and all the modern trappings of our hectic lives – this helps you listen to nature and your body, soul and mind and escape into a world outside of the ordinary routine.

I am sure that as the reader, you will start to get an idea of where I am coming from - the parallel to our lives as hoteliers is remarkably similar.

• The setting of clear, quantifiable and achievable objectives
• Setting aside the time required for the planning and preparation together with the all important training plan
• The support and camaraderie we get from our teams and work colleagues
• The professional advice and guidance we can get from those outside our immediate environment – expertise sought and brought in on an ad hoc basis to address a particular need that is outside our teams' skill set
• Measuring the results - the use of benchmarking and KPI's
• Continuous dispassionate assessment of one's progress and making the requisite changes as performance and anticipated results demand
• Implementation - putting in the hard graft, doing ones homework and ensuring the facts are correct, thus offering one the best chance of success
• The sacrifices one must inevitably make to achieve one's goal or objective
• The leadership that one must provide to ensure that all achieve the goal
• Determination and commitment to one's chosen path and perseverance to achieve – the mental discipline that unifies all the other elements and maintains the route to success in a pressurised environment. The mindset drives performance.

The work ethic of the runner achieving his or her PB is not at all dissimilar to that of you the reader, the hotelier opening the doors of your hotel day in and day out.