Are You Living It?

June was an interesting month for me. I had two half ironman races planned for this month. Back in December, when I planned out my season, I’d hoped to do well at both of these races. Life has a funny way of changing our best laid plans. Sometimes you’ve gotta roll with the punches.

After coming back from IronMan Arizona, I was beset with some serious pain from a tight IT band. If you’ve never experienced it, you wouldn’t believe the pain. I went down to Show Low for a race put on by my main sponsor TriSports.com. I knew I wouldn’t be able to run, so I made it through the swim and bike and dropped out at that point. It was my first dnf, and I didn’t feel good about it. At the end of June, I travelled to Lubbock, Texas for the Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 race. I was using it as a training race, so I wasn’t expecting much from myself…just some good hard work. This is usually a hot, humid, windy race, but this year, we had cool temps and rain. On the last tricky descent of the course, I hit a slick patch of tar and hit the tarmac hard. Basically, my bike and raced each other down the hill side by side. For the briefest moment, the idea of dropping out went through my mind. However, I remembered the dnf at my last race, and I knew that I had to press on. I took stock in my injuries and my bike….lots of pain, but nothing broken. I remounted and busted tail for the transition area to start my 13+ mile run. I made it through with a grimace of pain on my face, but I couldn’t feel too badly about my situation. Towards the end of my run, I noticed quite a few “challenged athletes”…these are the guys in the wheels chairs trying to push themselves up an 8% grade using there arms. Who was I kidding? These guys bust their ass every day just to make it in life, and they’re out here busting their ass even hard to finish this race! Hats off to them! My scars will heal…their scars are permanent. They’re the heroes in this. They are living their passion, and they’re putting up with a lot more pain than I am in order to do so. God bless them!