We Have All The Time In The World

I'll hold my hands up on this one, I'm fixated with times, it matters to me how fast I can do a particular race, nobody else cares how fast I can do it, but I do! How fast can I do the Olympic Triathlon?, how fast can I do a 10km?, only last month I went to Italy with the main aim of getting a personal best at the Half Ironman distance.

Here's me pointing at my time as I cross the finish line!!

And there's many more like me, the "3 Hour Marathon", the "Sub 10 Ironman" are just some of the more popular targets we hear about people chasing regularly.

And there's nothing wrong with this either, its great to have goals, big achievements that are hard to attain and worth the hard work and sacrifice. Accomplishments that you have forever that you can look back on and say, look, there, I did a thing!

But do we place too much emphasis on times, to the detriment of enjoyment of our sport? If our time is not faster than our previous, is this a failure? Particularly with running and triathlons, where every course and conditions are different and are held over such distances that these variables have such a large influence. 

Did you ever watch a professional triathlon or running race, the best of the best, racing against each other, the clock is largely secondary, those guys wanna win, they don't care if its 10 mins slower than their previous race, as long as they're first across the line. 

I went looking for an image of a close finish to a triathlon and couldn't have found a more apt shot. He didn't win, he didn't even come second, but the guy in third is the GOAT!!

Its terrible hearing people complete Ironman's and put it down as bad day because they didn't do it in a particular time.

It's definitely a reflection of modern times (getting deep now) where we define success by growth, in the same way that profits must always being going up, times must always be coming down.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, if your race wasn't as fast as you hoped it to be, or if there are 200 people finishing faster than you, that's OK, see it for what it is, see what you have achieved and how most people wouldn't even know where to start in achieving what you achieved, be that a 5km road race or an Ultra Marathon. 

That person who finished just ahead of you could be training 30 hours a week, sleeping 10 hours a night and have the best of equipment, this could be their big race of the year, you both may be on the same course, but are you both really on a level playing field?

I know there's nobody out there brave enough to do it, but wouldn't it be great to have a race with no timing chips, no clock, no tabulation of finishers in time order as if that somehow provides a constant between us all. No electronics allowed, the only goal is to complete it, have a banana and a laugh with your competitors and be happy that what you're doing is no less or more hard than the person next to you?

Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't chase a time or aim to beat a time, it can be a fantastic motivator and speaking from experience, the sense of achievement from doing it is amazing. And if that's your goal, absolutely go for it, but just because you did that Ironman in 10.01 instead of 9.59, doesn't mean that you're not bloody amazing anyway!

And likewise, don't be afraid to aim to finish, these goals can be equally as tough and are equally as satisfying to complete and you are equally as amazing to do it.

I'm seeing more and more these days, that the best races are not the wins, there the ones where the performance most closely matches the expectations. The races that you did your best with what you could.

(Now the punchline)

And irrespective of which one you are,  Comeragh Coaching has the plan for you!!