A false narrative of failure isn’t false if you keep failing

Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Press reporter Maxine Jacobs builds evidence of success rather than failure at her run club Get up to Five - all in preparation for Round the Bays in Christchurch in March 2025.

Round the Bays Christchurch is ’round the corner, but how do you start running if you’ve never done it? The Press reporter Maxine Jacobs takes on the Get up to Five challenge to find out how to go from a couch queen to a jolly jogger.

I’ve always been impatient - my dad can attest to that.

If I try my hand at something and I’m not perfect straight away, or a barrier arises and I can’t jump over that hurdle quickly, then it’s not happening.

That barrier is usually that I can’t be bothered. To that, my gym memberships can attest.

I don’t even know how much money I’ve spent on 12-month gym memberships I confidently said I would use that ended up forgotten within the first few weeks.

I remember I was speaking about this with Bevan James Eyles before I started his Get up to Five running challenge ahead of signing up to Round the Bays Christchurch.

Press reporter Maxine Jacobs reflects on building evidence of success rather than failure in her running journey.

“Setting goals that you don’t reach builds a false narrative about yourself that you fail,” I said to him.

“It’s not false,” he told me. “You are failing, and you’re giving yourself evidence you will continue to.“

It took me aback. Aren’t we supposed to be positive and look on the brighter side? Yes, but he was right.

Press reporter Maxine Jacobs is training to run 5km.

Do you want to join Maxine? Click here to sign up for Southern Cross Round the Bays Christchurch 2025 and join the movement.

Every time I set a goal for myself that I wasn’t able to achieve, whether it was a diet of eating 120g of protein a day, or saying I’ll never smoke again, or deciding I’ll go to the gym three times a week - which I’ve literally never done longer than a few weeks - I was proving to myself I couldn’t achieve my goals.

If I wasn’t perfect, I failed, and rather than meeting myself where I was at, I wanted to think I could do anything and everything I set my mind to - and I can, but all in good time.

To get to the level I want to be at sustainably without constantly letting myself down along the way meant taking one small step, then another, then another.

I took this on board, and now I’ve started week five of the Get up to Five challenge with a gust of wind in my sails I haven’t had before.

Maxine stretches with a gaggle of Canada geese in Hagley Park.

Starting from nothing and jumping to running five kilometres is actually a lot, especially if you’ve never done it before.

Bevan says each step, like putting your clothes out the night before, packing your go-bag, and having your after-run snack ready, are all little successes that get you closer to completing your goal.

Following his advice and leaning on the gaggle of gals I see three days a week for run club has helped me meet myself where I’m at, so I can give myself evidence of success, rather than failure.

I’m not racing to Get up to Five, I’m taking steps to Get up to Five, and with the help of the crew I’ve not failed yet.