Sunday morning I woke up with one thought in my head. It wasn’t to win or even finish my triathlon I had in a few hours; it wasn’t even about my “victory” breakfast I wanted to treat myself to afterwards. It was simply to remember as many things that Peter K has taught me as is humanly possible.
Let me explain. The week before, I had a triathlon. No, you didn’t miss the blog I wrote about it, discussing all the highlights and how I did such a great job that I amazed even myself. I didn’t write about it because it was a complete disaster. It was pouring rain, I was completely unprepared mentally, and I simply forgot to do everything that Peter K has taught me. I didn’t use any strategies that I know, the most important one being to believe in myself. I ended up swimming for 5 minutes before I completely panicked in the 2 foot swells caused by the rain and came out of the water, disqualifying myself. The race folks let me do the bike and run, but throughout them I spent my time beating myself up by telling myself I failed because that’s what I deserved and I had no business doing triathlons.
After that race, I met with Peter K for a coaching session and I explained my triathlon debacle. I told him that I was thinking about doing another one this weekend to put a better experience between the last one and the big Olympic distance one I have in a couple of weeks. Peter thought it was a good idea, and went over some basic strategies with me to help me prepare for it. He helped me to feel human again, reminding me that sometimes people just panic and it’s OK. He also said, “Al, you’re an athlete. You need to start seeing that in yourself!”
So, Sunday morning I found myself on the water’s edge of Lake Sebago at Harriman State Park, waiting for my swim wave to start. I looked out at the swim course, and thought of my first Peter K trick of the day: break it up into smaller pieces. Instead of thinking of the entire ½ mile swim – the part of the race that brought me to my knees the week before – I told myself that all I had to do was swim to the first buoy. That’s it.
When the gun went off for my wave, I walked into the water. I remember what Peter said, “Just stay calm. You know you can do this.” And I did. I swam to the first buoy, then told myself I just had to swim to the second one. I couldn’t have been any more in control and calm if I had been swimming in my own bathtub.
After the swim I had a quick conversation with God. My part went like this: “If you can make it stop raining for the bike, then I don’t care if the you decide to start the second Great Flood during the run.” I thought I heard God say, “It’s a deal,” and I even noticed the rain lighten up. As I grabbed my biking gear, I started to panic. I knew I had to do that big hill (2 miles long, 1200 foot drop in elevation. Really.), and I knew that even though God and I talked about him holding back on the rain, the roads would still be slick. Then I thought about Peter’s advice again: “Go slow on the turns. Don’t worry if people pass you. Just do YOUR race.”
About 2 minutes into my ride, though, the heavens opened up even more and the rain turned to a torrential downpour. I looked upward and said, “Dude?!” God replied in my own head: “Yeah, I’m a little busy trying to stop famine and poverty. Sorry if I don’t have time to stop the rain during your race.” Fine. I thought about Peter K’s advice and did exactly what he said. I did my race. I went slow enough on the down hills and turns that I could have walked my bike faster. But I climbed those hills like the athlete that Peter keeps telling me that I am. As I started down the big hill, I thought about something simple that Peter said to me once: “Al, you can do this.” He’s my coach. He knows what I’m capable of, even if I can’t see it. He’s not going to let me do something I’m going to fail at. So with complete confidence – and my hand on the brake the entire time – I calmly and slowly made it down the enormous hill, glided through the hairpin turn, and confidently climbed back up.
The bike course continued the same way, lots of hills, lots of technique, a lot of Peter K talking in my ear: “slow on the turns, take those hills like you know you can, have fun!” I finally pulled into transition, toss off my helmet and took off on my run. It was still pouring down in buckets and I half expected to see all the forest animals at Harriman State Park to start lining up in pairs. But as Peter K has reminded me, the run is my strong suit. I almost look at it as the prize I get for surviving the first two legs of the race, so off I go. Peter has taught me a lot about running: how to pace myself, how to keep my shoulders relaxed and to let my core do a lot of the work. But, the only piece of Peter K advice I think of during the run is this: “Have fun!”
Even though it was so wet that my sneakers were waterlogged, the run was a blast. My approach is to only have one thing on my mind: the runner in front of me. I focused on that person, and slowly and steadily got closer to them, then I dropped into overdrive and flew past them, getting the ultimate runner’s high. I did this repeatedly on the run, and each time just completely lived in the moment, experiencing the utter joy of being so fit that I had enough energy to overtake runners over 2 hours into my workout.
As I approached the finish line, I flew past a volunteer who said, “Woah. Strong finish!” I smiled and sprinted right over the finish line. This triathlon is identical to the first one I ever did, a little over a year ago. I looked at my watch and saw that I did this one 1 minute faster than the one I did last year when the conditions were a thousand times better and I didn’t have to make sure my life insurance policy was in a prominent place before I left that morning.
I made it through this race because I’ve worked hard for the last couple of years. I’ve trained hard, eaten well. But mostly, I was so successful because I have worked with a coach and mentor to guide me through the bumps and teach me how to reach my potential. And I only have two words to describe how I feel about next week’s Olympic triathlon that has been mentally tormenting me all summer: Bring it :-).
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