Grit and determination is all I have. It doesn’t translate into awesome race times but you’ll never break me mentally and I’ll never quit because it got hard or it hurts. Every single day it’s hard to be active nevermind when racing 
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I haven’t had the life struggles you’ve had and I’m thankful for that but I can relate somewhat with all the spine surgery.
sometimes it’s a victory just to be ‘doing’. 
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Yes, definitely. I’ve said before that I think it’s likely easier not knowing any different than having to recalibrate to a life change - whether that’s injury or even just getting older. That is much harder I think…
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Thinking about this again. Does being a consistent and determined bugger count as a type of grit? Eg. hardly ever cutting a run short & only ever DNFing because the bike blew up unfixably?
Edit: idiot, should have known better than to post something like this. Went for a run straight after and within 3km was walking 
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I think for me i can be fiercely competitive at times, but its the “at times” that maybe sets most amateurs from the best. You see elites wont even want to lose at monopoly. If i have set my sights on something, ie my first sub 2 half, sub 2.30 oly or finishing an Ironman, i will push beyond what i think i can do. In tri my favourite “racing” finish was final 2 or 3k in a half IM and i was running with someone from Essex Tri. Id struggled with massive stomach cramps for first 3 miles but have never forgot I actively chose to “race” for 271st or whatever it was, I put in speed bursts, slowed and really dug in the last 1km to get that place. On the opposite end i was doing my 2nd VLM, aim was sub 4 just because. I got around 17miles, was trotting nicely along but traffic built up and I list 30m on the pacer. I could have got back eaaily but thought, why risk it, just enjoy it and finish with a smile. Ended up 4.09 but very happy.
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When I used to swim at galas, my goal was to get the best time I could. Some of my friends had a different mentality; forget about the time, just get the win. So while I was getting decent times, they were swimming for GB. We all had grit and determination, but the additional winning mentality provided an extra boost.
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Sounds like every IM I’ve done.
Most galas are heat declared winner now so its all about time as you might not even be in a heat with your own age group, just those with a similar entry time to you! Even Counties anything 200m and above is HDW, and only 50Free and 100’s have heats (based on QF time) and then top 10 of each age into the AG final.
Its obvious how ‘grit’ seems to mean very different things to people and how it is interpreted, admittedly I did kind of funnel it down a particular path initially but was looking to stimulate a conversation on the overall topic.
For @Poet and @Paul You didn’t get to those points by sitting on your arses and doing nothing. It could have been you went and got a training session done when it was pissing with rain and cold or were hungover/tired? It doesn’t necessarily mean to finish in an arbitrary time or position to me. You were suffering and determined to not walk but I’m sure plenty of people did, before you even filter out the people who didn’t even make it to the start line! Also nobody (bar elites) runs 10k in 35mins casually I bet that hurt!
I’m definitely not in the HTFU camp. That mindset helps nobody. But there is vast area in between that and going ‘meh, I’ll stay on the sofa today’ repeat for a week etc.
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I think everyone on here has ‘it’ vs. the general population. We simply wouldn’t do the things we do and waste our time talking about it.
It’s like my big annoyance when people see me at, say, a Parkrun. The old “Oh it’s easy for you, you can run way further than 5km”. It abso-bloody-lutely is not easy for me. The distance, yes. But i didn’t see you collapsing on the floor at the end, physically unable to gasp enough oxygen to feed the burning muscles. No, you eased off after 2km because it started to get a bit hard or made you feel uncomfortable.
No judgement on that way of operating, but it’s also very easy to shift the ‘blame’ away and say it’s easy for someone else thus justifying ‘their’ inabiltiy or lack of desire to push hard. The grit to get it done if you will.
Obviously it’s a lot more complicated than that.
I do like to think i’m reasonably mentally tough for these types of exercise related stuff (not necessarily for other things, but sport has always brought out a much more fierce and competitive side of me that simply doesn’t exist in nearly all other aspects of my life - i’m pretty laid back generally, and happy doing me).
I agree with many of the posts on here. I think there are many different aspects of this toughness - whether that’s training and commitment, pushing boundaries within a race, pushing through the mental demons on a long ultra type event. Stubbornness, determination, motivation, perseverance, commitment, confidence, stoicism, positivity in the face of difficulty, competitiveness (with self, against others or against a clock - love that mara graph earlier BTW, that’s ace), will … loads of words that can be interpreted in various ways.
Interesting topic though, and likely a highly personal one.
I’m, for example, still super pi$$ed off that i bailed at mile ~90 on the Beacons Way Ultra back in 2019. My ankle was wrecked, and i was barely coherent due to a very slow acting nutrition mistake. Was totally the right thing to stop and not be a danger to myself or others. But it still burns so bad and makes me so mad. Nobody else GAF, of course not. But to me it represents a failure that i don’t like. I use that as fuel to know that i still have the grit inside me. It comes out less and less now, but it’s there. And I like the fact that i know it’s there.
I think Macca famously called it ‘the dog’. That carnal part of you that just gets $hit done when things get tough.
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Never done a Parkrun when I didn’t want to step to the side at some point.
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Not in the context of this forum obvs but generally, people think I’m really fit. The one phrase that annoys me is the ‘it’s easy for you, you’re a machine’.
I’ve always disliked that expression, it implies that you have no emotion and can just hit a ‘go fast’ switch and think nothing of it.
Going hard bloody hurts and 'hard ’ is different for everyone one but the feeling isn’t.
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‘It never gets easier, you just get faster’
Well summarised by @gingerbongo
I have done a few parkruns ‘slowly’ when I’ve been recovering from an injury or knew I had a big session the day after. Sometimes I failed and had to go chasing people 
,
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“Its easy for you” , “you are a natural” , “you are so talented” hate that nonsense in any walk of life.
Bill Furniss once said to such a comment on Adlington being a naturally talented swimmer “it took 4 years of 70k+ a week to become that naturally talented” -5c middle of winter 5am in a pool. That is grit.
I also look at my sons swimming, every day he will go and never slack off, even when he is tired. Did 4hrs a day for a week and whilst others “feigned injury” because of fatigue and a seriously cold pool, he just shivered and swam because “its how i get fast”. I wouldnt have 
then again he hasnt quite learned the art of throwing up poolside after a 100 fly yet
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Just to note, I’ve never done one where I did, I don’t really agree with the never gets harder … , actually getting fitter and more competitive can make it get harder for people, it certainly would for me - although probably still not to the levels of actually wanting to step aside.
I am very, very uncompetitive though.
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I’ve not done many Parkruns, possibly not yet into double figures, so it may be that the novelty hasn’t worn off for me yet & I always tend to use them as a jolly good workout.
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I’m not sure I’m going to add anything new here, lots of good points already made.
My grit level increases in direct proportion to how significantly I care about a result. If I’m in close contention with a club mate, then grit levels can go (or at least could back in the day) through the roof.
HIM Llanberis 2002 - I had cramp at the start of the run but was only a minute or so ahead of someone I just had to beat (they were in T2 as I left). The run up to PyP was hideous but it was by some margin my best result in tri at the time.
Helvellyn 2005 - there was a bloke drafting round the bike and I caught him up on the run just before Swirral Edge, gave him a piece of my mind and caned it to the finish. Probably my best result in tri that day. Being angry definitely increases grit!
These are rather isolated incidents though. Mostly, good results have come from solid training and the races have been well paced and uneventful from a grit perspective.
In recent years, grit has been about cycling in grotty conditions, be it commuting in the dark or riding in winter in general. All the grit is used up in persuading myself to get out, once I’m riding I don’t need the grit any more 
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I just don’t want to get old and fat
In the meantime I’m fed up turning up to races and routinely putting in shit to middling performances when I know I can do better if I trained smarter/ properly
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This thread making me think of
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