My Attitude

It occured to me that I might seem to be downplaying my accomplishment of finishing IMFL these last two years. It's not that I'm disappointed in myself, in my training, in my race performance, but rather that I know I can do better. I have relished in finishing these races, crossed the finish line with a smile, arms raised high in a sort of victorious state. When I first contemplated (back in 1993) doing an Ironman, I thought that it would be the ultimate endeavor, that I would hang up all my athletic equipment and stop doing anything, because that was the pinnacle of athletic pursuit. Of course, I've gained some perspective since then. There's a whole breadth of athletic achievements that one could pursue. And definately, after doing one of these races, I got the taste for it and wanted to do more. So here I am embarking on #3. But anyway, I've digressed a bit...

My attitude has to do with my competitive nature. Finishing those first two races was about survival. I proved strong enough to endure the suffering throughout 140.6 miles (2.4mi swim + 112mi bike + 26.2mi run), depite not training adequately. Now, I want to know exactly how fast I can go when I actually do train properly. My fellow racers are certainly well trained. They say the average Ironman competitor trains for 7 months, with weekly averages of 7mi of swimming, 232mi of cycling, and 48mi of running. I have no idea how they do all that and in many cases have jobs and families, and otherwise keep themselves active and busy. These people are an exceptional bunch and I pride myself just for being associated with them; in order for me to feel truly among them though, I need an attitude adjustment. I can't suffice with simply finishing the race, I've already done that. I need to reach my potential. And to reach my potential I have to look back, understand what I've done thus far (which involves being a little tough on myself), and then strive to do better.