Just this past weekend I had the honor to toe the starting line in Arizona for another Ironman Triathlon. It was such a pleasure to share so many hours of the day and night with fellow athletes motivated to do just one thing, to finish the race. It always amazes me people that put themselves thru so much pain to accomplish something that seems unfathomable to most people, the stories behind their motivations are so inspiring. There is a song, by Johny Cash, called Hurt. It is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard, but there is a line that touches my heart “I hurt myself today to see if I still feel” and that is how I describe my motivation. I do this because I still can, it is painful, but it feels so good. Shut up legs is a way to say, there will be a time that I won’t be able to do this anymore, but today… is not that day.
I saw several athletes missing a limb or two, yet with the heart of warriors, they tackled that course as if their life depended on it. I saw the winner finishing his first bike lap even before I got started on my first; he broke the world record for an Ironman race, he finished in 7 hours 50 minutes, 15 seconds, amazing. I talked with a guy that had been fighting addiction for a long time, I spoke with a lady that was a breast cancer survivor, and then there is me. I am still fighting my own fight, a pesky brain tumor. We all had a story to tell, and we all had amazing performances regardless of our finish time.
There are a few things I have learned doing endurance races, here are five of my last race.
A) You are stronger than you think you are
Nothing, absolutely nothing is better than an endurance sport to show you how strong you are. I went to this race, clearly under-trained, but confident that I was going to finish. I have done this race plenty of times to know what I am capable of; I had a plan. Sometimes our biggest critics are ourselves, and we can do more than we think we can. It is amazing how much you learn about yourself by embarking in a training protocol to do something epic. You will discover the strength within you; you will acquire grit, persistence, acceptance to failure, health and most importantly, a new view of yourself. You will realize that you are capable of more than you think.
B) Don’t get too comfortable
I knew I was going to finish; I felt confident that if things went well, I could potentially better my time. Self-confidence is a prerequisite for success, but there is a fine line between being self-confident and being cocky. I knew that in a race this long, things could happen and they eventually will. I had a couple of mechanical issues with both, my bike and my feet. Thus I had to adjust my goal. Time became unimportant when the first sign of trouble was evident, and I shifted my goal, it became to finish the race. Life is a race; if we get too comfortable, and things go south, they eventually will, they might derail our primary goal; thus we must adjust our goal. After all, being outside of our comfort zone is the only way to grow.
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C) Don’t worry about the competition, compete against yourself
I had one goal in mind, to better my time from the last time I did this particular race. Then I thought about what had changed since the last time; I am 7 years older; I haven’t trained as hard; I have a young daughter that keeps me occupied; can I do better? When I finished the swim, which I killed, I was pumped and ready to rock the bike. Then, I had an unforeseeable mechanical issue that put an end to that goal real quick; game over. I always think that we are on this earth to live up to our maximum potential a potential that should not be defined by the success of others. The fact that someone in my age group could do the race 4 hours faster than me does not make me feel inferior or slow. We must not neglect our accomplishments not matter how small they might seem to others. Lets enjoy them and push ourselves because there is always the next time. Money doesn’t make us happy, perhaps slightly comfortable, but not by much.
D) You can’t control the rain, but you can control if you get wet or not
I had dreams of finishing better than the last time. I killed the swim; I was out of the water faster than I was expecting to; it was exhilarating. I changed into my bike gear, got my bike and started to hammer. Then I had an unexpected mechanical issue, I tried my best to compensate, but soon I realized that I wouldn’t have been able to keep the pace without paying for it at a later time. So I slowed down and started to look for a bike tech to help me fix the bike. When the bike was fixed, I already had lost some valuable time; I couldn’t control that. I could hammer and make up some of the time I lost with the bike tech, but I realized that hammering would have been unwise for the overall mission. So I settled on a comfortable bike pace and finished not far from my previous record, and I had plenty in the tank for the run.
Then I started the run, at mile 7 or 8, my plantar fasciitis flared up and soon I knew that it was going to be a slow marathon. I couldn’t control the fact that my bike had mechanical issues or the fact that my plantar fasciitis flared up, but I could manage my expectation of the race and my attitude. I spent time talking to people and helping others that were struggling; I had a great time. We all have an opportunity, to help others to feel better. We can use our experiences to mentor, to inspire and elevate others when we do that, we are not just helping them, but we are also helping ourselves. In a race, any race, the minute we help others we also rip the benefits. When people look up to us, we feel energized and motivated to set the pace, the example.
E) Being optimistic is the way forward
“How do you do it?” I have been asked several times. “You’ve had some awful stuff happen to you, but you’re still smiling and very positive." I consider myself the most optimistic person in the world, it is normal for me. But my friend’s comment made me realize that not everybody feels the same as I do. I went to this race counting on my experience and optimism, not my better judgment. My experience told me to relax, listen to my body and focus on finishing the race rather than competing and break any records, even mine. The optimistic me was saying, “the race is long enough that if I feel sick, I can always take a break and then continue, but I will finish.” My better judgment told me, “you aren’t ready, you didn’t train hard enough, you will bonk.” I decided to listen to the optimistic me and count on my experience to finish the race. Sometimes it pays off not listening to naysayers, especially if one of those is yourself. There is nothing more rewarding than doing something others didn’t believe you were capable of, including yourself.
I love what I do and can’t wait to start training for my next event. Now, where are my trail running shoes?
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