Keeping the Pace: Learning to Balance and Grow after my First IRONMAN

Last weekend I completed an IRONMAN triathlon in Lake Placid, NY. While I've participated in races before, this marked a very significant personal accomplishment for me, as it was my first full IRONMAN. It was a difficult course consisting of 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running for a total of 140.6 miles. As I reflect on the race, the lessons I learned from such a challenging experience will continue to inspire me in my career and personal life for years to come. Here are a few that I'm taking away from the experience:?

Achieving major goals requires skillful balance and sacrifice:

Keeping up with a rigorous training regimen while managing my roles at work and home truly put my work-life balance to the test and required a significant level of sacrifice. This IRONMAN, along with my family and BMS responsibilities, were priorities to me, so working to make sure nothing fell through the cracks was a formidable feat. Was it easy? No. Did I need to ask for support, leniency, and grace from my family along the way? Absolutely. Most importantly, was it worth it? Absolutely.?

My family embraced this as a team victory, and having their support all along the way was instrumental for me to complete it.?They mean so much to me that I carried a picture of them in my pocket and would take it out for inspiration when I needed to dig deep. As I crossed the finish line, I took out the photo so they could “cross the finish line with me.” My wife Rebecca volunteered at the finish line. As I crossed the finish line and heard the magical 4 words “You are an IRONMAN”, I was able to embrace her with tears of joy to celebrate the moment together.

Achieving a goal often requires sacrifice – moving you beyond the comforts of your typical routine, testing your boundaries and leaving room for growth and new opportunities. Training for the IRONMAN was not easy, and I had to find time in an already busy day to train – early morning (4/5 am) trainings and squeezing in training sessions after work before commuting home, left little room for relaxation and recovery. It became common that I had to miss out on social gatherings and late nights with friends and adjust my diet to optimize my training. Having grit, resilience and determination are truly required to make something so demanding a part of your daily routine. There were some days where I didn’t feel like training, or I had competing priorities, but I knew that consistency was key and what would set me up for success on race day.??

The sacrifices were not only mine. The night before the race, my son David called from camp to wish me luck. Candidly, David told me that he couldn’t wait for this race to be over so he and the rest of my family would be able to spend more time with me. It was an emotional moment between us to acknowledge the time we had lost due to training. It’s important to recognize concessions others make for you to accomplish a goal, and I an extremely grateful to my family for the sacrifices made over the past 6 months for this race. I am looking forward to rebalancing my priorities.

A balanced life can sometimes look more like an ebb and flow of priorities over different periods of time. Some stages of life might push you to focus more on personal goals, while others lend themselves to professional development and growth. Maintaining personal wellbeing through hobbies and activities outside of work has always been something I encourage across my team. It’s important to take the time to identify and pursue passions outside of work, as ultimately the time spent on those passions will help you show up to work as your most fulfilled and motivated self. I may not choose to embark on such an intense training routine anytime soon, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that anything I set my mind to is possible. My hope is that my experience inspires you to take on a new goal that challenges and motivates you.

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Stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to building a community that can support you through challenges:

One thing that struck me about training for and participating in this race was the strength I found in the community of people I met along the way. The triathlon community is small and tight knit, but one that I would not have tapped into without stepping outside of my comfort zone to meet new people and gain new experiences. ?I have been fortunate to meet, train and learn from amazing people on the same journey, and the moments and memories we created together will last a lifetime.?I am so grateful to all of them.

The way people came together to cheer on total strangers, to offer a word of encouragement, or help a friend across the finish line was truly inspiring and reminded me about the importance of human connection. While this competition was an individual event, no one truly raced alone. I am also forever grateful to Rich Kelpacz who prepared me so well for this major milestone, putting a masterful training plan together. Building an extensive network and making connections where possible is key in life – whether it is on an IRONMAN course or in the boardroom. Say hello to someone you don’t know in the office, encourage your teams to have conversations across different workstreams. Take the time to listen and learn from someone who can provide a different perspective.?Go out of your way to lend a helping hand to someone. You never know who may end up propelling your career or personal life. ?

I hope to bring this sense of comradery back to my teams at BMS and remember that we are more powerful when we work together, than as individuals.

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Exploring your boundaries can lead to increased self-discovery and personal growth:

Achieving my dream of completing the full IRONMAN has reminded me that anything is possible. It pushed me to my limits like I have never been challenged before. I learned so much about how it is physical and mental strength that is critical to channel towards your aspirations and necessary to overcome any obstacle that comes in your way.?In an IRONMAN, you never know what can be thrown at you: equipment issues, difficult weather conditions, nutrition challenges, injuries, dehydration, and fatigue. It is how you respond to and rise above those obstacles that defines how you can persevere to achieve your goal.?Moving forward, I can draw from the physical and mental challenges I overcame to complete the race and know that I can conquer any personal or professional adversity that I may face.

Growth and innovation are impossible without exploration. By trying new things and testing your own personal limits, you leave room to better yourself and broaden your horizons.

I encourage you to try new things – no matter how small or large – to push yourself on a path to self-discovery. You will be surprised by how much you can do when you set your mind to it. Never stop exploring, you never know what you’ll be capable of, who you will meet along the way or what you might learn about yourself.

Please share in the comments something new you’ve tried recently that pushed you professionally or personally. What did you learn from the experience?