Why not?

I remember this one time back in the day watching Universal Sports Network.  They were showing the highlights from the Kona Ironman.  I liked watching it; I wanted to be one of those racers.  They were putting all they had right at that moment combined with the tireless training over past months.  The finish line footage looked so incredibly satisfying.  I’m biased now… I can look back and remember that the satisfying finish line crossings were in the dark… lights out… sun’s down, gone, and set.  It was late in the evening.  People were still trucking just to taste the finish line.  One by one it showed the finish line crossings.  And that was that.  The show ended; I watched something else.

Now fast forward to years later.  I decided to run a marathon.  Why not, right?  There are more epiphanies than that, but it narrows down to that simple question.  I ran a marathon.  After that a friend convinced me to do an Ironman with him.  We signed up and training began.  I taught myself to swim from scratch.  I bought a tri-bike online and assembled it myself.  I could already run.  I trained, and I trained, and I trained.  I trained myself.  I had lunch with a personal trainer from a gym connected to my company through business.  He had done multiple Ironman races before.  We talked for an hour.  He didn’t charge me anything because he “enjoyed talking about it.”  I got pointers.  Some I used and some I didn’t, but it was firsthand information. 

I did that Ironman and it was great.  I had some crushing experiences and I had some great ones.  I did another a year later.  I have good and bad memories associated with each race.  I finished both.  That’s it.  That’s my short version story.  It’s simplistic and boring and lots of words to read.  There’s plenty more words to read though.

Fast forward again to now.  I watched a movie (again).  I remembered an event from the movie that turned out to be from a different movie, but I couldn’t remember which one.  I tried but couldn’t pull out the knowledge.  Days later I had a crappy night.  Like a beer and pizza night.  The kind of night you don’t want to go anywhere or see anyone.  I wanted to watch a positive movie.  I watched a movie I thought of, randomly.  So, no guff, my brain magically picked the movie that contained the moment I thought the other movie had.  That’s it.  That’s all.

That subconscious.  It’s a crazy super power we all have.  It just keeps chugging while we eat, play, and sleep.  It’s a machine that never stops without any actual effort from our conscious thoughts.

Now let’s backtrack.  That one guy who watched Ironman races and enjoyed the athleticism, dedication, and effort poured into finishing the race?  He did one later.  A friend encouraged him and he did it.  It just happened.  Afterwards it was just a casual thing.  Doing another, or more down the line, are no big deal.  That magical subconscious just kept the idea alive and the reality alive until it was time to actually do one.  Done.  Check.  Completed. 

So how many people have ideas of new activities or adventures in life?  But when these ideas propagate and surface… instead of tucking them away for later… they just shoot them down.

My life is too…

Work is…

I have … responsibilities…

I’m too…

Just submerge that idea and drown it in a pool of day to day repetition and monotony.  Take your conscious thoughts and strangle out an idea and keep it from your subconscious.  Your subconscious is like a superpower that all of us get to enjoy, but too often individuals run themselves into the dumps or set roadblocks in their own lives. 

Collect your aspirations and dreams and let them sit idle, because why not?  Just collect them and let your subconscious and even conscious thoughts think about your success.  Use that weird super power of subconscious thought that we all are gifted with.  Yeah, not everything will come to light, become a reality, or propagate.  But perhaps some will.  We may not all become a doctor, fireman, or policeman like we thought in 1^st grade.  We may not place 1^st in the Boston marathon.  We may not walk on the moon.  But something will shine through.  Don’t get stuck somewhere you don’t want to be.  Don’t accept the repetition of the daily grind.  We may not ever be first, but never accept being last.

 

If you fail, which we are all bound to experience, please explain to me how you are worse off than when you started.  If I had failed and missed the cutoffs of my first Ironman I would have a DNF (dfd not finish).  But I’d have the health, the dedication, and the trip to Whistler to remember.  What shame or defeat ever is tied or tethered to saying that you tried.

That’s it, you can stop reading now.

But let’s rewind to the time watching Universal Sports Netowork.  The dark.  The evening time when the finishers crossed.  My first Ironman (I know, it was my first), I crossed the finish line in the dark.  My family was there, they announced my name, and I was done.  I felt incredible.  I was triumphant and glad to be done.  I had missed the bike cutoff by less than thirty minutes (8 hours and 10 minute ride).  My family was worried and I had no idea that I was 20 minutes shy of getting pulled from the course.  That’s the summery.

My second Ironman I trained hard for.  I trained with my once upon time girlfriend.  We swam enough, ran enough, and spent countless hours on the bike and on hills.  I was ready to rock.  She may have beaten me, but I still got an incredibly improved time.  When I finished my second IM my family was waiting for me, and so was she.  But this time I was just done.  I had completed the race.  There was no “will I finish” mentality.  And that was it.

So now to compare the two.  The questionable finish with no experience or knowledge will always remain, in my brain, the more incredible race.  Because that feeling to identify if we can even do it is an incredible feeling.  Just jump in and see what you can do.