"There are only two types of human contest: Racing and Warfare".
Read Tom Demerly's editorial this week HERE to find out
if maybe you are... a LIAR. Are you lying to yourself and to others about the races you enter? Do you define yourself as a "Participant" rather than a "Racer"?
"I just did the race for fun, just a catered training day...". If I hear that one more time I'm going to throw up! Of course, I have used that line many, many times. HA! Everyone has, and we were all lying our butts off.
As someone who views every race as a bloody battle, I enjoyed Tom's insight, from the perspective of a bike shop owner and lifelong endurance RACER. The 'casual competitor' is such a misnomer. To say you did a race "just for fun" is a "Lie", for most. Sure you did it for Fun - but when you toe the line you are a Warrior. The butterflies in your stomach, the flashbacks to the blood, sweat and tears put into your training, the sacrifices you have made...all for this moment in time.
Why not just admit that you are at the starting line to THROW DOWN...to find out what you've got under the hood!?
Ironman founder and retired Navy Captain John Collins has called the Hawaii Ironman "the only place you can find out what your soul is made of in a non-lethal environment".
Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote comes to mind:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
So, are you a Racer/Warrior or "Participant"?
Songs of the day:
#1 is is Frontin' by the Neptunes featuring Jay-Z...
#2 is Discipline by Nine Inch Nails
Some guys showed up in Monaco today to RACE:
No comments:
Post a Comment