Some Days There Will Be Rain!
Over the weekend I competed in my first multi sport event in 10 years.
Brief history lesson for you…
Back in 2001 through 2003, I competed in Triathlons (swim, bike, run) and Duathlons (run, bike, run) to get my mind off Tae Kwon Do.
One of my coaches at the time, David Martin, thought I was taking fighting too serious and thought I needed to do something for fun. Out of everything out there to choose from… He didn’t realize I would pick another sport.
Now back to today’s story. If you’re in Georgia, you know it rained over the weekend. It rained a lot!
We were driving to Newnan to stay the night at my parents before heading to Callaway Gardens early Sunday morning for the race.
I was putting the bikes on the truck… in the rain. I was thinking to myself while I was getting soaked, “this isn’t going to be any fun!” But, I went through the motions of preparing and gathering everything we needed anyway.
As Stacy and I drove down for the race, we kept looking around to see if there were other cars with bikes on them , but no one was on the road.
We finally pulled in to the parking lot where the race was being held to find a few participants there. About 100 people showed up of the 200 plus that were supposed to be there.
Looking around, you could see the determination of people’s faces and some frowns from the rain conditions of course, but they showed up.
In my 2.5 year span of competing in races I had never raced in the rain.
The race director cautioned everyone over and over about the slick conditions on the course and that the bike portion would be cut from over 18 miles to 9.5 due to the technical aspects and the dangerous areas of the road.
After our briefing, we gathered up our gear found a prime spot in the transition area, dropped off our gear and headed to the starting area.
The gun sounded and we were off!
After 1 hour and 18 minutes I arrived at the finish line. I was 2nd in my age group and 13th overall. The time was good.
I originally planned to do it closer to an hour, but I used a lot of caution in order to not go down on the bike. With that said, me and two guys stayed together through the entire bike portion. Our average speed was over 19 miles and hour!
I wouldn’t have placed if I didn’t show up!
Now, this was just a race. But, there are days in life when it rains. Sometimes it will rain hard. But, you have to show up. It may not be the best conditions, it may be more difficult than perfect weather, but in order to see results, you have to show up!
Start Strong, Finish Stronger!
Nathan
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