Last weekend our friend
swam, biked and ran for 13.44 hours straight.
Yes, you read that right.
He swam for 3.8 kms, then jumped on his bike and rode 180 kms and then he got off his bike and ran a full marathon.
Who does that?
Let's not discuss how superfit this guy is; or how nuts he is. Or how much time he must spend training - just running and swimming and riding and riding and riding. As LOML and I like to say when we see someone out riding their bike in the middle of nowhere, "yep, look at him... nothing better to do". Oh, and when we see people out jogging we say, "yeah, you'd better run".
But I digress.
If you ask someone like Roger why he does what he does he talks a lot about how it feels when he finishes. The actual doing of the Ironman event is gruelling, exhausting, painful - your basic fucking nightmare. Pushing through enormous physical and mental barriers again and again and again. Ignoring the aching limbs, the blistered feet, the thudding heart, the sheer loneliness. Breaking through your fear and riding the pain all the way to the finishing line is the biggest high (apparently) you could ever (supposedly) climb to (I am told). It's success and achievement and satisfaction and 27,000 'you rocks' all wrapped up in a very sweaty gift.
Life's a bit like that. Sweaty. Plus the sheer gruelling drudgery of life is enough to make you want to run the 100 metres in the opposite direction. But we're all signed up for the Ironman and we've got to just keep on plodding.
How are we going to last?
By focusing on the finish line, the whole reason why we're here doing what we're doing. Plodding along towards our notion of what success looks like; the thing or things that makes it all worthwhile. Trouble is, I'm not entirely sure I know what that end goal is. Trouble indeed. How am I going to finish this bloody marathon if I don't know what it is I'm running towards? What's going to help me push through the pain?
So, in prep for next year, I'm having one of my Big Thinks and I'm writing down those big, big goals. Why am I swimming and biking and running and running and running? What does the finish line look like to me? And how will I know when I get there? As usual, my Big Think might take me a while to think*, but I know it's one of those really important ones that I've just got to get to the bottom of. I've just got to know.
What are you running for?
And what's waiting for you at the finish line?
