The bottom line
Everybody has a bottom line. Yes, it's a hackneyed cliché - and only one of plethora on the subject - but it is nevertheless true.
A colleague and I were discussing it yesterday. Despite proclaiming we are entirely non-competitive when it comes to events, we still have our own private parameters.
His was not to be passed by women with walking sticks. It sounds like a fair call to me. As I'm a runner, not a walker, I've never been passed by anyone with any sort of walking stick (though I have been beaten by mad race walkers) but neither do I want to be.
While you already know, let me state once again for the record: I am not fast at swimming or cycling, or running. However, I am competitive by nature - just ask my brothers, with whom I have had many board game battles royal - so, I have had to swallow my pride during numerous events.
After all, it's only a race with myself, blah, blah etc.
However, as I said, I still have my bottom line. When I lived in Nelson, I was a member of a triathlon club composed mainly of people training for the world tri champs age group competition. So, any group event that we did, I knew that I would be the straggler. My ambition was simple: to make sure the young teenage daughters of another competitor would not beat me. Don't underestimate the power of potential humiliation as a motivating factor.
After I did Ironman the first time, quite a few of these fast people decided that if I could do it, so could they. I don’t flatter myself I am inspiring. It was a case of, well, given her ability if she can do it …
In that second Ironman I beat one of these people, a man who always kicked my backside at short-course events. He came up to me at prizegiving to bemoan this state of affairs. I was surprised and not very sympathetic. After all, he was about 75. I’m not exaggerating.
These days, I train with other people of a similar speed, which is better for my self-esteem, but still a training impetus. Not only to make sure I get there, but also to retain my spot in swim squad, or the running group.
And every event is often about beating previous times, or doing a personal best. But I’m realistic – if the wind is blowing a gale and my training has been underwhelming, then I’m not exactly going to beat my best half marathon time.
I would like to say that Ironman is the sort of race where only finishing matters. And to certain extent, that is true. However, I was most unhappy when I injured myself just before Ironman 07 and did my slowest time.
My only guilty consolation was beating someone who used to train with me then stopped because I was too slow.
We all have our tolerance limits.
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I too have been someone's inspiration to do a half marathon - "if that lump can do it surely I can" Lovely.
Biking home last week, I passed another cyclist for the first time ever. While I did feel kinda bad for this poor struggling soul I was delighted that for once I was the one doing the passing! I reckon that excitement fueled me the rest of the way home. I did offer her a cheery hello as I passed. She responded with a 'hi-i-i' with intonation that said 'I can't believe I'm doing this' :)
Anyone who is obviously older than me. Since I am back in age grouping again as a veteran this is important. At a local 10k in the summer, where my lack of leg strength was brutally brought home to me, I was passed in the last 400m by a guy in his 60s who was obviously working up his finish. Except that he didn't know about my sprint finish. So I simply dug in and didn't let him get too far ahead, then when the finish line was in sight I let loose my sprint and flew past him. Ha!
Earlier in the race a woman in her 30's passed me as my deficiency hit. As she did so she glanced at me, smiled and I heard her go 'yes!'. Well 150m later was a short downhill ramp and she and her partner leant back to go down it, while another guy and I leant forward and stretched out to run down it properly. As we went past her at pace she let out an 'Oh!'. That was most satisfying too. Moral of the story, don't be triumphal when you pass someone. Do it in a way that is devastating by all means, just don't gloat outwardly.
If you're not first, you're last...
As long as I am not the first one to DNF, then I am pretty happy with the world. I've been passed many a time by a dog on a chain, to not get too carried away with the emotion of it all.
Besides, when the photos come out, if there is no one else in it, how does anyone know if you are out the back or so far ahead?
My bottom line is that I will not be beaten by anyone with a bigger bottom than mine, unless they are male.
My bottom line at the moment is to make every race a PB. Which isn't as hard as you would think at the moment as I am on the exponential curve of improvement that a beginning runner gets. No idea how long this will last! I appear to be a middle of the pack runner based on the results for the two races I have entered. Which of course means that half the pack is behind me. YAY!
At the ADRA 10km last Sunday, I thought of this blog as I passed a male runner and said quietly to myself "OMG I just *chicked* someone". There was one woman who kept passing me at speed only for me to pass her, walking, a few minutes later. This continued for kilometers. I couldn't figure out why she didn't just reduce her pace and run the whole thing. Is this normal?
One other thing from the ADRA run last week - thanks so much to the teenage boy with Down's Syndrome who was doing the 5km and gave me (and all the other 10km runners) a high 5 as we were running back along Tamaki Dr. Gave me what I needed to pick up my pace for the last few kms and beat my target time by over a minute!
My three aims for any race event (motorsport) are:
3. Not to be last/last in class. Mostly achieved.
2. Be able to drive the car home. Only missed this one once.
1. Have fun. This year has seen a marked improvement in the results on this goal. :-)
I always have a pretty good idea of how I will go in a race based on my training history leading up to an event. Its pretty rare that I won't be able to take something positive out of it. It would be nice to be able to tell everyone about how I beat this or that person but in reality I am usually last out of the water so if I manage to pass a few people on the bike or run that is good. But all I do is focus on my own performance and try to get the most out of myself on any given day. If I've done my best and the others are faster well too bad. No good will come from me feeling bad about that. I just think about the next race and how I can improve some aspect of my performance by training a bit harder or a bit smarter.
As someone who is typically (much) closer to the back of the field than the front my bottom line is no DNF's. I came very close in a Wellington Half Ironman years ago. I had just taken delivery of a nice new radial spoked front wheel and used it for the very first time in the race (big mistake). Unfortunately the guy who built it hadn't done a great job beacuse after less than 1 lap of the bike course about half the spokes had come loose to the extent that the wheel was wobbling all over the place and was unridable. I started to walk back to the transition area when I came across someone who was on their third puncture in his rear wheel and had no more spares. I was on tubular tyres and he was on clinchers so my spares were no good to him but he offered me his front wheel and off I went - non-DNF record intact. By the time I finished the run he'd come and recovered his wheel and gone home so I never did get to thank him - maybe he might read this?
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My bottom line varies from race to race. Once it was not to be beaten by the middle aged foot-slapping grunty man who was passing me every time we went down a hill (*grunt-slap-grunt-slap-grunt-slap*) and that I was passing every time we went up another one. I made sure he couldn't catch me again.
Another it was to make sure I came in well in front of the guy who had his running shorts tucked into his undies.....