Into Perspective

When I was mountain bike racing I remember reading an interview with the current World Champion. He was very open and spoke of how after he won his World Title, he just felt the burning question “now what?”. He had poured his entire life into reaching his goal, achieved it, but felt lost after it. I think he was missing the point and more so, an opportunity.

I am only a decent local runner. To the World of running I am a minnow in the ocean. My times are good for here, decent for Canada, but not much else after that. I will never be a true elite at this, not even close. I don’t run to make the Olympics, I don’t run to break records, I don’t run to even win races. I have perspective how good I am, and how good I’m not.

It comes down to being very personal. I want to go faster, to push, to see what I have in me. I just want to improve, to learn, to experience more of this. I love the discipline and life style that comes with the training. Running is a raw sport. It’s just you and the course and clock. No real equipment, no teammates, no drama, no faking it. Your legs do all the talking for you. I love that.

The only way to improve is to embrace being uncomfortable, especially in our environment. We have terrible weather, no real interesting place to run, no hills, and not even someone to run with. If you are not disciplined you got nothing. Discipline is sacrifice and through that you begin to learn and understand other areas in life. I hope to blog about those.