Seeking Journey Athletes!

Do you obsess? Do you pour over information? No, this is not a late night infomercial, but something I have recently decided to quit doing. Why? Because obsessing and races do not go hand in hand when getting older! I remember my coach saying to us gym rats (yes, you can be old and be a gym rat) “You’ll not be as fast as you were when you were younger!” And I thought, “What? When did that happen?”

I finished a race with some friends recently and went back to the times, pouring over everyone’s splits and finishing times, then I went and complained to my husband, “Man, they really did well. I can’t believe they beat me.” He sipped his coffee and looked at me and simply said, “Well, they are 15 years younger than you. Give yourself a break.”

Hmmm, maybe that is a point. As I started to go back to the times, I tried to think about why type of athlete I am, not armchair, not elite, then what am I? I think about all the races I’ve done (never add up what you’ve spent on races and cheerfully tell the other half who doesn’t race) and find that now as I approach that starting line, I’m there for the experience, there for enjoying being fit and showing it off when I can finish a race, there because others talked me into it (believe me, there were a few times I WASN’T happy someone talked me into a race) there because I want to do it to prove to myself that I can do it, not to anyone else.

What type of athlete are you? Do you pour over times wondering where you could shave off a few minutes? Do you obsess about the length of your workouts (yes, I am guilty of that but being a businessperson and Mom and wife means I’ve got to carve the time and sometimes it may not be the time I want) Or are you a journey athlete, enjoying the journey and getting to the point of “doing well” and “being competitive” without freaking out about it?

OK, so my OCD came back again and I had to go back to the numbers one more time. This time rather than looking at my friends times compared to mine (I mean, they are, afterall, 15 years younger than me) I went to my place in history – where I land in my age group (old farts) and 75th in a race that’s got over 6K people wasn’t that damn bad. Going to lace up the shoes.