I guess now is the appropriate time to reflect on the goals I had going into yesterday's race. And I did have a few:
1. Finish - Admittedly, this wasn't the most difficult goal. I'm hard-headed enough that I'll drag my sorry ass to any finish line, no matter the condition (see running a half-marathon on a bad foot two weeks ago). But I can check it off.
2. Finish strong - This is difficult to put into an exact measure, but I wanted a really good run. I would have been disappointed if I was stumbling in with a 2+ hour half-mary. I was thinking around 1:35, but considering my 1:38 was a top 10 time, I think I get another check mark.
3. AG places - With the course (hills, the T1 climb and the extra 4km) and the weather, I abandoned all time goals. Instead, I had a few ideas about places I would have liked to get. Since at The Chase I went 62/21/25 for 26th place, if the field was twice the size, I thought top 100 on the swim, 40 on the bike, and 50 on the run would be great. That would put me top 40, maybe even top 30 at the finish. Well, I went 57/21/10 and took 11th. Huge check mark.
4. The top secret mystery goal that only my wife knew about - Let me digress for a moment ...
I'm the worst natural athlete you know. (I know, anybody around the world could be reading this, and I don't know everyone they know, but trust me.) A quick rundown of my athletic history: I played youth hockey for six years, and scored one (1) goal. I was the last kid chosen in my hometown in citywide tryouts my last year. In my single season of Little League, I reached base six times (2 walks, 3 hit by pitch, and 1 throwing error, which was one of two times I made contact all season). I improved my provincial racquetball ranking by 25 positions by not playing in any tournaments for six months. As much as I love sports, I'm not automatic at any of them.
It may seem that I've picked up triathlon fairly quickly, with this being my first year, but really it's not. I've been running for fifteen years, cycling for ten. Most people, if they logged the miles I have over that time, would be well beyond my abilities. My improvements in swimming this year stem directly from the primary lesson I've gotten from those sports: Just do the work. My swim coach mentioned it after the race, and I like the term; I am "diligent". It's 5 am, 30 below, and you have to go to swim practice? Just do the work. You're tired but you have an hour of threshold intervals scheduled? Just do the work. You want to go to a concert, but that requires moving your evening 5 mile run to right after swim practice in the morning? Just do the work. Eat right? Just do the work. Get enough sleep? Just do the work. It's a very blue-collar, western Manitoba/West Texas farming ethic, but it's what has gotten me my little successes.
And that brings me to yesterday. A year ago I told my wife that I had the slimmest possibility about qualifying for the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. It was unlikely, but I wanted to take a shot. That required from her the permission to "just do the work", and log some heavy miles in our first year of marriage. She made that sacrifice, and let me disappear in the wee hours of the morning, to the pool or the road. Every step, lap and pedal stroke was with a single-minded goal. I couldn't tell anyone about this, not to jinx it, or have people ask about it if I missed out. But it was there. Yesterday, every kilometre that went by was another kilometer closer to Florida. Every person I passed was another rung up the ladder of qualifying. Waiting for rolldown was one of the most nerve-wracking times of my life.
On November 8, 2008, I'll be in the water in Clearwater.
I paid my entry fee and I'm registered. This is one of the most surreal moments of my life. If you had known me for 99% of my life, and heard I was going to a world championship, you'd assume it was for sports trivia or math. There's no way it involved any actual athleticism. But, it happened. I barely slept last night thinking about it.
I'm a testament to just doing the work. If there's anything you want to accomplish, look to me and see that it can happen. It won't happen overnight, it may take years, but you can get there. Lose weight, finish school, go to Worlds. Every day, you just do the work.
Now for Worlds, I'll need a new goal. The first thing that comes to mind is, don't be last. Let's start from there. I get a few days to rest and recover (my feet are a mess and my calves are screaming), then guess what I'll just be doing?
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2 comments:
I'm the worst natural athlete you know.
I have trouble reconciling this with the fact that you are on your way to the World Championships in one of the most demanding sports ever dreamed up by human minds!
I think my favourite thing about endurance sport is that "just do the work" actually works. If you put in the time, you see the improvement. I too was raised in a household where "working hard" was held up as the greatest possible achievement in life. Someone could randomly be born with exceptional talent, but when it comes to willingness to buckle down and put in the time... we're all on equal footing. It's something I hope to pass on to my daughter, because I think pretty much everything I've achieved in my life is a consequence of this mentality.
Anyways, more to the point: CONGRATS! I literally punched the air with with excitement when I read 'Clearwater'... so much so that Mel had to ask if I'd just got another big grant (the getting of which is, of course, simply a result of 'doing the work'). ;)
What an awesome season. Awesome to the max.
I know it sounds odd, but I'm really not just being humble. I was last chosen at everything growing up. I was short, weak and slow. All I bring to the table is persistence, which is more a mental trait than anything, but is why endurance sports work for me. I can accept more suffering. I slow down less.
I need to do a better job of taking this attitude into other areas. I've never worked hard enough at school or in my career, in part because I could cruise without doing the work. But now that I've seen what I can do when I buckle down, I want to fix that.
I may need to find a way to do something outrageous to get on NBC's coverage of the race. I considered a backflip over the line, but related to "worst natural athlete", I'd probably break my neck.
Now go get a grant big enough to take that sabbatical.
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