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Some thots

September 16, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Swim

Comments:
My body is still aching from playing basketball on Friday. Is this what it feels like to be old? I knew I wasn’t gonna get a good run in today so I decided to swim instead. Something I noticed while in the water is that my swimming form has a degraded a lot, but that’s probably just because I’m still working back into shape. All a part of the process.

In other news, I totally forgot to register for the Boston Marathon until I saw a tweet come up on my TL saying that registration was about to close in 20 minutes. So I got that done. I guess sometimes it’s good to always be on twitter.

But now here is where I am gonna go on a bit of a Whinnery-esque flow of words.

This weekend the triathlon world championships were held in Gold Coast, Australia. On the elite level for the men, the Americans kinda got curb stomped. Just as they always have. Our amateurs did really really well, but on the elite level (for men) the Americans have ALWAYS failed to show. So now that I am a part of Team USA, I understand my responsibility. Although I am FAR from the elite level, I know what I need to do. Don’t think I don’t understand how low I am on the totem pole. I was deadass a whole TEN minutes behind the winner last month in Cleveland. But it’s all a part of the process. Next year on September 1st in Lausanne, Switzerland... That’s where I will begin to climb up the ranks and do my part to represent this country so proudly on the world stage. My goal in life has always been to become a professional athlete, and a strong showing at worlds is the first step in getting there. And I KNOW I am very far off from that. But again, where I am at now is all a part of the process. I also know that I am so so far away from my peak in this sport. My swimming can be better, my biking can be A LOT better (planning on getting a new bike for worlds), my transitions can improve by a staggering amount, and of course my running can always be faster. I do NOT feel like I have exhausted whatever I have. I can always train harder and farther. This is just the beginning.

And then there was what happened this morning. Eliud Kipchoge.

I had no idea the Berlin Marathon was even happening. Not that I would have been awake at 3:30am anyway, but it depresses me that nothing in the running world is ever put into the mainstream media. Even after Kipchoge got the record, I received NO notifications from any news outlet. But I get it; professional running is really not a popular sport in the world. Anyway, Kipchoge’s performance inspired me more and got me really excited for my return to Boston in April. The marathon is a special race.

I am not going to be young forever (see: my body aching from playing basketball), and there will come a day when my window to become a professional athlete will close. Yes, I realize already that there is a 0.00001% chance of that ever happening, but you only get to live life once. And I don’t want to leave anything up for “what if.”