Perfect Place

I think that there are supposed to be moments over the course of our lives when we feel we have found our "perfect place."

There are times while racing and even training when I feel like I am in that perfect place, and anyone who tells me that's just endorphins talking is someone who has yet to find THEIR place.  Triathloning, for me, is more than fun and fulfilling.  It is intoxicating.  Something happens when I am training and racing that lessens my fatigue and replaces exhaustion with euphoria.  I feel unstoppable, like this is what my body was born to do.

After having finished my first Olympic and Half Ironman distances over the last eight weeks, I have discovered that the run is my strongest leg.  No one passes me on the run.  Instead, I spend those miles counting the athletes that I pass.  (I can say this without feeling bad because my swim time is embarrassing and my friends tease me that a guy on a unicycle could average better splits than me on my bike.)  But the run feels almost effortless, like I am floating over the ground, gliding from one mile to the next.  I feel great, so I run faster.  Running faster makes me feel even better, so I run even faster than that.  By the end of my race or training session, I feel great, like I might just burst with happiness.

Now, I realize that these thoughts are not normal, and I know that many people struggle through the run, wishing for the race to be over.  Maybe I was meant to be an endurance athlete, or maybe I am seriously deranged.  Either way, there are times during all the events when I wish those moments would never end.  I would stay in the water, on the bike or on the road forever if I could.  Dirty, sweaty, sometimes covered in gnats or mud or salt, hands sticky with "Carb Boom," tongue stained red with gatorade, feeling my very own muscles propel my body mile after mile, realizing how far my capabilities stretch.  Call me crazy, but that is MY perfect place.

I remember watching the Arizona Ironman in 2005 and thinking how brutal an endeavor.  I wanted the day to be over just for the athletes' sakes.  Now that I have seen the other side, I realize that for most of those athletes, that was probably exactly where they wanted to be at that moment.  They were at home, in their element, floating, and unbeknown to them, inspiring others to find that same "perfection" for themselves.

Since I started training for my Ironman, people have told me that they've been inspired by my efforts.  One friend has started a running regimen, my mom has lost 10 pounds, another friend is taking up multisport racing.  Their commendations are flattering and for me, there is nothing as important as health and fitness, so I am glad they feel inspired to such ends.  But I hope that this piece of writing , this bigger idea, reaches more than just athletes.  Some of us are motivated by far different things than sports and athletics.

As an athlete, and a coach by profession, sometimes I forget that one's "perfect place" may have nothing to do with racing or training.  Maybe it's music, or dance, or writing, or religion that delivers someone to his or her perfect place.  In the end, the source of the flame makes no difference because that spark of inspiration can light someone else's flame just the same.  Like watching the Ironman back in 2005, I had no idea what I was seeing.  But looking back I realize that on that day I was made aware that that level of love for something lives in us all.  It just took me another two years to figure out what my "something" was.

I think that if we are lucky and open and perceptive enough, we will many times find ourselves in the presence of another person's perfect place.  I think that's what happened to me in April of 2005 -- people that I didn't even know, doing something I didn't even understand, sparked something inside of me that changed my life.