Lessons from St. George Half Ironman

I raced the Half Ironman in St. George this Saturday. It's the North American Championship race and it's a great race, and I recommend it to anyone interested in torturing themselves for hours. The bike course has a few thousand feet of climbing, the vast majority coming in a 10 mile section riding up Snow Canyon, which is beautiful to look at . . . if you can see through the sweat. The real challenge comes on the run though; hill after hill, oh of course another hill and then go back down that hill and up again just because it was so much fun. It was windy on the course last weekend, which meant that my PR on the bike course put me right at my max power for a lot of the ride. Not great for a tough run. While I was running though, I thought of some interesting things about life that I thought I would share. Maybe my slow run time resulted in too much energy loss from thinking.

1.   Make sure you acknowledge the people who make your life easier. The volunteers make the races possible-literally races wouldn't happen if people had to be paid to do everything that the volunteers do. Too often I see people screaming at them about how they hand out the bottles on the bike course or complaining because the water is warm on the run course. Some people focus so much on themselves that they fail to notice how hard these volunteers are working. Volunteers stand out in the hot sun all day. Motivate us to keep moving. Hand us liquid and nutrition. And they don't make a dime for it. I can't thank every volunteer, for much of the run course I can't breathe let alone talk. But I will say it here, thanks to all of the volunteers-Ironman or otherwise- who make the world a great place.

2.   Run your own race. You'll be passing people and people will be passing you at different times. When the 70 year old man run's past me smiling and says something like, "you got this, only 12 miles to go", while I'm barely able to keep my lungs or sometimes lunch in it's appropriate place it's tempting not to speed up. Be happy to just keep moving forward. You don't know who that guy is or how much time he has to train. Be proud of him, cheer him on. The lesson in life is, don't let your mind be beat about by the things going on around you in the world. You have a dream, you have a goal, move forward and learn from those who are running faster than you. Maybe next time you'll be a little faster.

3.   Recovery is nice . . . appropriate recovery is critical. In past races my attitude after the race has been, I did the work now I deserve the double bacon cheeseburger, topped with guacamole, baby back ribs and fried onions. Maybe I don't go that far but if you see this advertised as the next big thing at Carl's Jr. call me, they owe me licensing fees. After St. George I had a chicken salad, and lots of water. I still probably didn't stretch enough but I do actually feel like I'm not quite as sore or exhausted as I've been in some of my past races. In life we sometimes work really hard and then when we think recovery is a night out or maybe spending hours watching TV. Recovery is required for the next success, but it should be active healthy recovery. Do something creative, get out into nature, let your mind relax and wake up refreshed to take on the next challenge.

4.   Be grateful for what you have. The challenged athletes racing are my heroes. People who had lost both legs were running uphill, on a hot, windy, tough run course...smiling! Don't be envious of what you wish you had, be grateful for what you do have and plan for what you want to have. Remember that somewhere there is someone who would give anything to have what you do, don't squander it, use it and enjoy it while you still have it.

5.   Just do it. Thanks Nike! Figure out why you want to do it, prepare for it, but realize that you will never really be ready until you actually do it. Life comes with risks, you can learn to parachute by reading the manual, but you'll never soar if you don't jump out of the plane. We fear failure, but that is because we learned from standardized tests that there is actually a correct answer. Life gives us unlimited correct choices; the only way to fail is to stop moving forward.