This is why I became a coach. I wanted to help people keep TRI in perspective. So many Type As use this to substitute for achievement they crave, the success and recognition they love and it can become quite an addiction. In fact, one clue that this is happened is the extreme fear people have before a race, despite having trained for months, they walk onto a course with so much fear and anxiety. Why? Isn't this supposed to be fun? I spent a good part of my early tri years doing exactly that, signing up for more and more races, being exhaustingly scared of the race, and at the end more fatigued than happy. But one day I had an epiphany...this is supposed to be fun and I'm ruining it. Ruining it with ultra-high expectations because why? Because I once was on the path to the Olympic team in Tae Kwon Do and had it taken away by injury. I was on the path to being the youngest women plant manager in Pepsi and again this was ruined by illness from the job itself. I had so many unanswered dreams and I was using this to substitute and hoping to achieve, ACHIEVE, ACHIEVE! to satisfy my type A desires. I've achieved plenty in my life despite those setbacks but they haunted me.
But that epiphany that I was ruining my own fun was important. I stopped being so cranky, took training setbacks in stride, did what I could, and accepted the outcomes. And surprise, I started getting on the podium more often..with a less serious approach! Go figure. And those podium wins were no happier than the medal for crossing the finish line, only meant something to me. I try to coach with the same sort of savoir-faire support. You can push yourself, sure, but not to the elimination of your joy. That's crazy-making and confusing to those that love you. Triathlon is nothing to those who do not do it. Don't make it something "EVERYONE SHOULD UNDERSTAND" Those folks who deride people who compare a marathon with a 5K, and IM with HIM...the "purity of the sport!...such idiots" are being cruel and unnecessarily pompous about a sport we love to claim "only 2% do." So why should the 98% know about it? They simply not involved and your victories are nice but "so what?" Be happy you get to do this sport, accept the outcomes, and know you are doing something good for yourself but not at the destruction of the quality or loves in your life! There's room for both tri and everything else.
There will be a day I can no longer do this, Today is not that day.
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