Carry On

Same way we accomplish anything. I will provide you with the recipe after a brief anecdotal intro.

I am running in the park. I am very familiar with the gravel tail that ovals innocently around baseball fields, soccer pitches, kids playgrounds, a pump track, tennis courts, picnic areas a duck pond and even an observatory. It is a very cool place, one that I was privileged to live across the street from for thirty years. Like I said I know this course. It is pancake flat. On this sunny summer morning I pass the usual suspects out walking their dogs, some enjoying conversations, others on their phones. I smile for the former and frown seeing the latter. It has always been an outlet for me, running, at whatever pace is appropriate, breathing in rhythmic harmony, sun above earth below. I can’t think of any activity more organic, more grounding and connecting that the consistent graceful placement of one foot in front of the other. I am projecting this empathy with each foot strike in mental preparation for the run leg of the Olympic distance triathlon in which I will be defending my age group championship from a year ago. I say this without ego, not as brag, but as fact. You can look it up. But that is not the story. The story, as I am playing it out in my head as I run, fully intent on sharing it with my alter-ego, the one that still thinks that because I am nowhere near as fast as I used to be, that I should quit and take up bowling, Frisbee golf or backgammon. I am considering all this as my lower back and left piriformis open the second set with a painful dirge of sadness and loss. 

It was once suggested that, over the course of an Ironman, you can quit as many times as you want - as long as you don’t stop. The humiliation and regret I carry to this day over the DNF of my last Ironman will haunt me until the day that I return to the long course. Motivation? Inspiration? Dedication? Perseverance? Stubbornness? Stupidity? 

We all have our goals, dreams and desires. We all want the killer bod or the Corvette convertible. Most of us refer to bucket lists on a daily basis. We know what we want, or as Jimi one sang, I (we) just don’t know how to go about getting it. 

That lyric, one I always found interesting, is playing in my head as the answer comes into view like a bi-plane pulling a huge banner, and I see that answer. I know the answer. I know how to go about getting it (and truth be known - so did Jimi). It is this:

To accomplish anything we take the same approach that we take with running, biking or swimming, or all three. Here is the recipe:

WE START.
WE CONTINUE.
WE FINISH. 

With the middle task, the center, the good stuff between the bread, of what all good sandwiches are made, the crucial point of no return, the holy grail, the true test……being number two. Anybody can start. The hard part, the real challenge, the gist, the heart of the matter, is finding the courage to continue. To carry on. To soldier forth. One foot after the other. No matter what. 

Carry on.