Don't Give Up!

Sometimes life is hard. In every hard situation there is a lesson to be learned, which I recently discovered during a triathlon I was participating in. I’d trained hard, set realistic goals for my finish (improve my run time by 5 minutes, finish in the top 5, and finish ahead of an arch rival!), and felt as confident as I could be going into the Olympic distance triathlon.

My first hard lesson was upon dismount (or attempted dismount) from my bike. My shoe didn’t release from the pedal and the next thing I knew I was on the ground on top of my bike – in front of about 300 people! I got up as fast as I could and kept on going despite the cramping in my calf from where the pedal hit. There was no time to worry about what people were thinking about my botched dismount – I had a race to finish, and I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d have issues getting off the bike.

Luckily the cramp in my calf subsided quickly. Putting on my running shoes as fast as I could, I took off through the lava field for the run. My heart rate was out of control from the adrenaline rush from falling on my bike – not a good way to start. With my faster run time goal in front of me I tried as hard as I could to pick up the pace but I was really struggling. By 3 miles into the 6 mile run, I realized there was no way that goal was going to be realized and I just about threw in the towel. “Why finish if I can’t make my goals?” I pondered.

It was a tough decision, but I realized that I had trained hard all winter for this event and to not finish would be much worse than to finish without all my goals being complete. I knew I was in great shape, and that sometimes things don’t turn out as you want but it’s no reason to give up. So I trudged along, tried to encourage myself with every step, and finished. The best surprise was that I actually accomplished two of my three race goals!

So when life throws you some hard lessons, keep on going and don’t give up! You’ll feel a great sense of accomplishment when you get to the finish.