Journey to IRONMAN: Shall We Begin?

Bob and I love the new revamps of the Star Trek movies.  LOVE them, especially the second one where we have the return of Khan! (For those of you non-Trekkies.....don't worry....he's just a really cool bad guy).  Benedict Cumberbatch gives a fantastic performance as the tormented Khan.  You just can't help but love to hate him.  The first 2/3rds of the movie is this big lead up....is he good....is he bad.....is he just misunderstood? Captain Kirk thinks he has their problems solved and the battle waged when in one shocking turn of events Khan becomes the villain everyone suspected and the good guys realize they have been screwed.....completely, creatively and slyly.  Khan proudly points out the futility of their situation and then coyly speaks.....

"Shall we begin?......"

It's the moment that sets the movie in motion because THAT is when the real battle begins. It's all lead-up...... till that moment.

Well......all the lead up of the past 9 years......the anticipation from the last 3 years........the excitement of the past one has all culminated in this.........the final 12-week push to IRONMAN.  Its here....the final stretch to the summit.  The volume, the time, the distance.  Its time.

Shall we begin?

YES.....lets do this!  I will admit that a week and a half ago I had a little breakdown.  When a dream that you have becomes this soon to be reality and you see that it is in reach if only you can stick on the path, it is equal parts terrifying and exciting.  A million what-ifs try to break into the resolve that you have surrounded yourself with and suddenly you become so obsessed with the race and the elephant of training left to do that you forget the journey.  More aptly you forget the JOY of the journey.

 

My coach is an incredible person......and she is surrounded and mentored by truly incredible people.  One of those people is the owner of Racelab, Bettina, who has coached more athletes to IRONMAN than most, and who is currently coaching a para-triathlete Olympian.  I am blessed to know Bettina through Dawn and look up to her in a big way.  This fascinating and inspiring woman has a quote.

"Focus on the process, NOT the outcome."

Right now.....with 12 weeks left, this quote is so true, so apt and so poignant.  Right now it is important to not loose the fun and joy of the process amidst the expectations and hope for the outcome.  Sure....a lot can happen in 12 weeks, but every day is a step of the journey.  The success of IRONMAN is swimming, biking and running through each day.  Not just the race.  The joy is easy to miss when you are worried about your 5-hour bike ride, 16-mile run and 5k swim coming up.  The journey is so sweet.  Each day is worth enjoying and loving.

That said....I'm here, at the final stretch, the big stuff is coming and the final push to IRONMAN is here. I have what it takes.....but its gonna take all I got.

Shall we begin?

Her Journey to IRONMAN: The Joy of the Observer: 3 Months

I, Bob, have been able to watch Bethany train over the past year for her IRONMAN adventure. 

Have you ever found yourself smiling watching someone else achieve greatness?

One of my favorite videos online is of John Boyega, a young 22-year-old black kid from London, who became the star of the new Star Wars franchise. This was his first acting role and he now stars in one of the most iconic film franchises in history. 

Watch as he picks up the light saber and you see the dreams of every 8-year-old boy come to life:

Watching others achieve greatness can bring tremendous joy. You can’t help but smile for John Boyega and his friend as they see their dreams come true.

Along those same lines, last year SpaceX landing a million pound rocket the size of the statue of liberty, that had been traveling 3,000 MPH, on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic. They did something that no-one had ever done and something everyone said was impossible. Watch as 1,000 rocket scientist lose their minds while people worth a billion dollars high five interns:

Can you see their hours of labor? Their pain, suffering, and effort all boil to the surface when they achieve their goal? Did you notice the young guy who looked possessed as he lost himself in the cheering? I know that feeling.

For the past 12 months, I’ve been happy to be a supporting character in Bethany’s play. I’ve been happy to spend days with the girls as she puts in hours on the bike or in the water or out on the road. Watching Bethany achieve greatness has been one of the happiest events of my life.

I don’t believe life is binary where you have to compete with those closest to you in order to have joy. The presence of her joy doesn’t drive joy away from me, it provides joy to me. Like the reactions in those videos, joy is infectious and spreads to everyone in the room.

Unless you live alone, IRONMAN is a team sport.

There are only so many man hours in the day, and when you’re training, most of those man hours are spent exhausting yourself in pursuit of the IRONMAN goal. Being married to someone doing IRONMAN training is watching your partner have more energy and life than you’ve ever seen them have one minute and have them sleep for 20 hours the next. Bethany has never had more life, more joy, more energy, and more purpose than she does right now.  It's exciting and infectious. She spreads life everywhere.  I can't help but smile.

One of my favorite parts of the training is being with the girls while Bethany is out of the house. Bethany is gone when the girl's wake up.

When the training started, the girls would ask where mommy was, but after the first few weeks they knew she was out training. Our girls live in a world where their mom is so strong, so indestructible, and so determined that it is unusual if she is at home in the mornings. Her strength is making our girls strong.

I want to be a parent that isn’t as lazy as I want to be. I hope to raise girls who can solve the problems I couldn’t solve while loving people I couldn’t love. I want to have a marriage between two equals who choose to do life together every day. I want to have emotional bandwidth remaining at the end of the day. I want to have a wife who loves life. I want to have a wife who isn’t fragile and beaten down by life. I want a wife who can kick life in the teeth. Bethany training for Ironman gives us all those things.

Watch Bethany’s joy, and let it be infectious:

I love you babe.