One
of the great things about coaching is that observing my athletes in training
and racing can provide an outlook and give me reminders that I often neglect or
forget. A few weeks ago I had an "aha" moment of sorts, if you'd like
to call it that. Actually, it wasn't a new realization, it was a lesson I had
learned before but it was one I needed to hear again.
I
had two athletes racing in two separate races. Both of those races were
important to them for different reasons. Jeremy was racing the USAT Age Group
Sprint National Championsips in hopes of qualifying for Worlds next year.
Horacio was racing the Degray lake sprint triathlon to try and earn some much
needed points for to vault him atop the regional rankings. Both of them have
had some ups and down this year. Poor luck with races being canceled, missed
training, busy schedules, kids, dogs, school, work, a lot of changes for both
them. (As a side note: I've also learned by watching myself and my athletes
that you cannot separate the personal life from triathlon and pretend they
don't affect each other. They do. They are inseparably related and
you MUST treat them as such.)
All
that was behind us now and both of these guys had the right mindset going into
their races. Both were focused on the task at hand and ready to give it their
all. Both of their raced didn't play out as expected.
For
Jeremy it started when it didn't start. His wave was delayed for nearly 2 hours
while officials looked for a swimmer who had taken his chip off and not
notified the volunteers. Finally they were allowed to start and it was game on.
A mediocre swim, mediocre bike and mediocre run led to a mediocre result and a
missed opportunity to go to worlds.
For
Horacio it was a missed turn on the bike, going off course then getting back
on. Coming off the bike and being told he had 1:45 to the leader. If this was
Ironman then 1:45 wouldn't be anything to worry about but we're talking about a
3.4 mile run. After a brief moment of despair, Horacio put his head down and
ran as hard as he could, caught the guy, dropped him and cruised in for the
overall win.
Talking
to these guys after their races I could hear the disappointment in
Jeremy's voice and the excitement in Horacio's. Having to deal with highs and
lows is another part of a coaches job and dealing with the lows definitely
isn't fun. There's just no words that can take away that bitter taste you get
when you know you didn't perform your best when you really needed to.
As
I reflected a bit on that weekend I realized something. THE RESULT DOESN'T
MATTER. That's right, the placing doesn't matter. You're going to have crap
days. Bad races happen. Good races also happen. The important thing is that you
never, EVER give up. In training, in life, in racing that principle holds true.
You put your head down and you work. Why? Because you never know what's going
to happen. You never know if if the guy in front of you is going to blow up.
Crazy things happen in racing just like in life. I was immensely proud
of both Horacio and Jeremy after that weekend because both of them kept
fighting even when the odds were stacked against them. Sometimes the toughest
things is to keep fighting when you think you're going to lose. But you never
know... sometimes things come around and you come out on top. Just don't give
up.
