More than Just a Metal

This last Sunday I had the privilege to compete in one of my favorite races of the year; the U.S. Toyota Open in Dallas. I trained smart this year for this race, and for that matter, all my other races as well. Last year I was blinded by an odd desire to exceed my training schedule and obsessed with piling the miles on. I hurt myself, several times, using this strategy of training. I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot and a inflamed psoas which put me out of the game for about 6 months.

But that wasn't the case this year. I learned from my mistakes and found that I could train harder, if I trained smarter. Odd. I wasn't expecting that to be the case. And though I don't think I logged as many running miles this year I still took 5 minutes off my time from last year. By focusing my training and not pushing through injury-indicating pain signals, I was able to gain speed and technique in all of the elements of the triathlon: swimming, cycling, running, and transitions.

All of this has caused me to reflect and ponder my motivation for racing. I've listened to the fellow endurance addicts that make up my close knit training group and have realized that we all subject ourselves to pain, exhaustion, sacrifice, and a host of other inflictions willingly for very different reasons. For me it's about the entire process of training. Having healed remarkably several times from debilitating injuries, I have a growing respect and appreciation for my body's physical capabilities to endure and heal itself. I love endurance events because they show me I'm capable of more than I ever imagined. I can push my body to the limits, and only then do I begin to learn something new about myself. I also continue on in these endurance events and trainings because I simply love the feeling of covering miles powered by what God gave me. I live for the feeling of sheer exhaustion and accomplishment that comes when I cross the finish line of a race. So while it's great that I've been able to continually improve my times, that's just icing on the cake. I race and train because it makes me feel alive. If I did not challenge myself continually, I could not expect to grow as an athlete and as an individual. And without continually advancement life would just be boring.


"To achieve all that is possible, we must attempt the impossible - to be as much as we can, we must dream of being more."