Harder Better Faster Stronger

D Day – 1

Inspirational stories about defeat, redemption, hard work and ultimate victory. I’ve seen those time and time again. I’ve always wondered if the decades spent watching ESPN on TV, while sitting on a sofa, a smoke on hand, would do me any good. Well, it did. For the last 6 weeks, I’ve lived the life of an athlete. A real athlete. Pretty much everything revolved around my training. Workouts, rest days, sleeping patterns. What I ate, when I ate, how I ate.

Even the weather mattered a bit too much. For example, I enjoyed rainy day. I assumed that I’d be the only one working out that day, so I pushed a little bit extra. I’m sure Kobe Bryant thinks along the same lines. Train harder than the competition, and beat them.

Training is as much about building confidence, than it is about building endurance.

And now, the $1,000,000 question: Did I take all this racing stuff a bit too seriously? You bet. Karen told me so pretty much every day.

- Get over yourself Usain Bolt! she said, many, many times.

Usain Bolt is a sprinter, dude! I’m a distance runner. Call me Kenenisa Bekele (world record holder and two times Olympic champ) instead.

Call me Bekele cause I’m fast.

I look fast. I want to be fast. I think I’m fast.

In reality, I’m deceptively… slow.

6 weeks of training will do a lot to improve your confidence, but it won’t change the fact that I’m a sleep deprived 38 years old fart whom spent his life smoking and drinking, eating garbage and watching sport on TV.

But confidence can go a long way, sometimes.

PS: Thank you so much to all of you for your words of encouragement. I’ll carry them with me tomorrow. Peace