I had several friends race this past weekend with a variety of results. Some very pleased with their performance, one flatting early in the bike, some wins and high placements, some just plain really awful days. Not just in triathlons either. I attended Meadowmont Crit yesterday afternoon and saw the same variance in personal satisfaction with performance. It was all over the map, and I guess that’s the case with any race. There’s going to be some that do great, some that do fine and some that wonder if it might have been better not to show up. But it’s almost always worth showing up. This sounds so trite because it’s been said so many times and so many ways, but without the bad days, the good days won’t be recognized and the whole enterprise would be BORING and why do it if it’s not challenging?
So here I sit really happy for those that did well. But you know what? I’m also happy for those that didn’t have it go their way because they went out there and gave it a shot and I’m happy about that because I know each one is going to come back again and do it better next time. Sure, I empathize greatly with having a bad race. Haven’t we all been there? It’s not fun. It’s frustrating and there’s often physical pain involved. There’s plenty of pain during the good races too, so it’s not the pain that’s the problem, it’s the sense that it was pointless pain. At least it seems pointless until we’ve had a little time to digest the situation and come out smarter on the other end. Then it’s not so pointless, which is the point I’m trying to make.
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