Blog #2 for EndurancePlanet.com - originally posted on 7/24/2009
I don't want to compare triathlon to cancer, chemotherapy, or a host of other giant hurdles in life. It's a disservice to the people battling for their lives and in my opinion it belittles some of the accomplishment that people rightly feel when they cross that finish line. No one who did the Vineman 70.3 last weekend in the heat of Sonoma County thought they were going through something as transformative as chemotherapy. They know it's not the same kind of battle. But does that make the medal they earned less? Absolutely not.
But for me going forward the attitude has to be similar. I failed to cross the finish line in Windsor, California. (I know a group of very supportive friends who will bristle at my use of the word "fail," but the truth is that's what happened. No reason to run from it.) The heat and the hills, and perhaps a few missteps with my own nutrition, did me in. By the time I had my run shoes on and I was making my way to the run out of T2 it was clear that to continue further would be to get too close to the line of heat exhaustion. This was not my most important race of the year. So in the triple-digit heat that radiated down from the 2pm high sky I called it a day. A decision that was confirmed to be sound by the number of pro triathletes in the medical tent with me and the number of times over the next 5 hours that I filled up my emesis basin.
Discretion is the better part of valor, they say. It is good to be brave and never relenting... sometimes. It is also good to be smart.
I got knocked down and knocked out at Vineman, but I will get back up. The focus now turns to the Utah Half on August 15. That will become my half-ironman triumph that sets up my stretch run to Kona in October. That will be the finish line that propels me forward.
Getting back at it this week has been a little difficult. I didn't have the celebratory feel of a medal around my neck to end the weekend. I didn't have that proud moment that everyone who finished the race earned over 70.3 miles. But I will be fine. I will move forward. Always moving forward -- the mantra of the wanna-be Ironman. And I will get my 70.3 along Utah Lake in Provo.
And then it will be all eyes on 140.6 and the famous finish along Alii Drive.
But for me going forward the attitude has to be similar. I failed to cross the finish line in Windsor, California. (I know a group of very supportive friends who will bristle at my use of the word "fail," but the truth is that's what happened. No reason to run from it.) The heat and the hills, and perhaps a few missteps with my own nutrition, did me in. By the time I had my run shoes on and I was making my way to the run out of T2 it was clear that to continue further would be to get too close to the line of heat exhaustion. This was not my most important race of the year. So in the triple-digit heat that radiated down from the 2pm high sky I called it a day. A decision that was confirmed to be sound by the number of pro triathletes in the medical tent with me and the number of times over the next 5 hours that I filled up my emesis basin.
Discretion is the better part of valor, they say. It is good to be brave and never relenting... sometimes. It is also good to be smart.
I got knocked down and knocked out at Vineman, but I will get back up. The focus now turns to the Utah Half on August 15. That will become my half-ironman triumph that sets up my stretch run to Kona in October. That will be the finish line that propels me forward.
Getting back at it this week has been a little difficult. I didn't have the celebratory feel of a medal around my neck to end the weekend. I didn't have that proud moment that everyone who finished the race earned over 70.3 miles. But I will be fine. I will move forward. Always moving forward -- the mantra of the wanna-be Ironman. And I will get my 70.3 along Utah Lake in Provo.
And then it will be all eyes on 140.6 and the famous finish along Alii Drive.
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