Inspired by this video called Standing Start and a blog by Paul, I got to think about excellence. What does excellence mean to me, do I strive for it and do I ever achieve it?These thoughts are always challenged by my mate Ed, who has different objectives than I do and he works in a very different way. I am driven by a need to complete things. I love the fact I've done 7 marathons and 98 running races in total. The fact that my marathon PB is probably not as good as it should be doesn't bother me. I guess its quantity, rather than quality. Shaving seconds off my PBs doesn't give me that much joy but doing a new event, specially if its a bit unusual, fills me with excitement and a huge sense of achievement.
Ed, on the other hand, wants to do his best. He wants to say "I did everything I could to ride that event in the quickest possible time". If anything prevents him from doing his best, he is annoyed. He eats as perfect a diet as he can manage, trains as hard as he can, gets the best advice and makes sure he has the best gear he can afford. To enhance his training for the Marmotte, he has a personal coach to guide him through the next 5 months and maximise his training. This is sure to get him a sub-8 Fred Whitton.
I chose not to do the Marmotte as it felt too similar to the Etape. I will do it one day but I needed a new challenge. The Ironman fit the bill because not only is it longer than anything I'd done before but the swim added a huge degree of uncertainty to the event. I truly do not care what time I do it in. All I care about is the medal and being able to call myself IRONMAN.
So, are we both striving for excellence? In the normal definition of the word, I am not but Ed is. He yearns to be the best that he can be. He is willing to sacrifice a lot to get better and better at his chosen sport. I do not. I will sacrifice as much as is needed to complete the event. For the marathons, I didn't really have to lose that much weight so I didn't. For the Etape, losing weight would help so I lost some. Now for the Ironman, I really need to lose as much as possible, partly for aesthetic reasons but mostly to help prevent injury during the volume of work I have to get through. So I will lose it. I do what I have to; not the pursuit of excellence.
Yet, I feel like I have achieve excellence in my own frame of reference. I could not run to the end of the road in December 1999. When I finished my first half marathon in 2000 I knew I could not run one step more. And when I finished my first marathon in 4:59 I vowed never to run again. Yet here I am.
PS. I believe I have represented Ed correctly and positively (he'll soon tell me if I haven't). I don't say that one goal is any better or worse than another. I think having any goals and pushing your limits is all that's important.
That feeling of running down the finishing chute with the music banging and the announcer saying, "Simon, You're an Ironman." is simply irreplaceable.
ReplyDeleteAspiring to excellence at Ironman is pretty difficult to reconcile with normal life. Rising to the challenge is very much within. I'm surely you'll achieve your goal.
Hey, no complaints from me. My obsessive compulsive side really goes nuts here.
ReplyDeleteInteresting way of thinking about things though. I just see the things we do, are trying to do and the changes we affect to make them happen as being things we can take great pride in. I love the satisfaction that we do things that most others (referring to the general population, not the people who would actually be reading this) can't be bothered to even think about.
So I guess that means I agree with your final point :-)
Glad to hear it.
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