Where do you get your motivation from? Do you have a seemingly endless source of internal fire that you can call upon to get you up and out for that threshold session or tempo run on a cold, dark morning in the rain? If you do, then you are a rich man or woman indeed. For most people, external stimuli are required. And in many cases the motivation that you need to get the most of yourself comes in the form of a nemesis (or usually a few nemeses). An archenemy. A rival or two.

Brothers in arms?

At the moment I am reading Swim, Bike, Run by Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee. Actually I regretted starting the book almost immediately. It is like young wine or mild cheese – thin and unsatisfying. I actually think that the best sports biographies come much later in an athlete’s life, once all the deeds have been done and there is the patina of maturity and reflection that only comes with time. I know that the Brownlees have done amazing things, but it is all “we did this and then we did that and then I won this and then I won that”. There is nothing much in the way of depth and reflection. Or at least that is what I thought.

Suddenly I have hit upon a chapter where the two brothers have written about each other. I think we are all used to the slightly terse way that the brothers to about and to each other – who could forget Alistair’s reproach to his brother Jonny when he lost to Javier Gomez in the final race of the World Championship series in Hyde Park, London:

I’ll be giving him a lot of stick for that. He’s thrown a world title away through being a complete tactical numpty.

Tough words when you consider what Jonny had just put himself through.

But not so surprising once you have read what the two brothers say about their rivalry in their book. They really are motivated to beat the other one: Alistair because he thinks that Jonny is always trying to catch and surpass his brother two years his senior. And Jonny because he has always felt that he was inferior to his older brother.

Greatness rarely comes alone

The same is true for so many pockets of running greatness. Coe, Ovett and Cram created the conditions that were just right for a rivalry of epic proportions which resulted in record after record and win after win.

In marathon running there has was Shorter, Rodgers and Salazar in the US’s decade of marathon brilliance. Their rivalries, as is the case so many times, were born as much of “if he can do it, so can I” as anything else.

Perhaps we have seen the positive benefits of the Mo Farah X Galen Rupp rivalry at Nike’s Oregon Project.

Who motivates me?

So what about us normal runners? Well I think it works as well. Personally there are quite a few people who have motivated me over the years.

When I joined my first running club, the Serpentine RC, I found a group of runners who were of a similar standard to me almost immediately and they became the benchmark that I measured myself against.

By the time I moved to my current club, the Mornington Chasers, I felt as though I was getting into my stride and as I joined the club I was probably as one of the ten fastest runners there at the time. Those other nine or so Chasers became my new targets. There was a competition between us to see who would break the three hour mark. One did then the flood gates opened.

Then it was a quest to see who could break 2hrs 45 and/or 75 minutes to get the hallowed Championship time for the London marathon. Again, my club mates have started to cross those barriers with John (PB 2:43:53), Tom (PB 2:45:28), Marc (2:44:33), Mat (2:41:15) and Alex (PB 2:46:09) all running fast times and providing great targets for me to pit myself against.

And then there are the runners I train with under the watchful eye of Nick Anderson. Within that group there is Carl (PB 2:40:40), James (PB 2:39:00), Andy (PB 2:44:35) and Lorna (half marathon PB 73:57) who are all great runners and I know that they will all be delighted to run faster times than me. My motivation is to make that as hard for them as possible.

Using your fellow runners to your advantage

This is the best thing about my compatriots – I want them all to do well. That is one of the things that motivate me to try to do better myself. I suspect that at the very top levels of running, there is no desire on the part of the opposing athletes for their counterparts to do well. But that is not something I have to worry about. If one of the runners I measure myself against does better than me, I simply have to do better and re-measure.

So how about you? Do you have club mates, friends or siblings that you measure yourself against? How do you feel when they do well? And how do you respond to their successes? Who is the Ovett to your Coe?