Do you wake up everyday striving to be better? Chasing the dream that continues to elude you at every turn?
I do! Everyday I wake up wondering how will I be better today. I strive to be more successful than anyone I know. That is my dream, to be at the top.
I want to accomplish things very few people do or ever thought of. That is one of the reasons I do Ironman. Not many people think of doing them and not many will ever actually do one. Those that do will likely never do another. Not me! I am going for 12 plus 1.
You see KONA is the ultimate Ironman. It is the Boston Marathon of Ironmans. It is the grand prize and where only the best race. You can only qualify in one of 2 ways to participate. One is to place in the top 1 to 3 in your age group at an actual Ironman event. The second is to do 12 Ironmans with 3 being in the last 3 years of finishing. If you do this, you can qualify for a legacy slot.
My goal is to complete this feat in 10 years. Why you ask? Well the math is simple. I will be married 25 years in 10 years. I have also had it on my bucket list since I was a kid to go to Hawaii. I will celebrate my 25 year anniversary in Hawaii while participating in the KONA Ironman. That is The Chase!
You might wonder why would I do something like this? What is the purpose? I ask myself this sometimes and think about it often when I am training hours and hours each day and weeks for these events. I do not know the real reason yet. I think it is because people ask why, and I ask why not. Why not see what I am made of, what I am capable of? Will this make me a better person?
I am not sure, but I think so. I have gone through ups and downs in my career. I have learned a lot from the downs and I know I have more to learn. I want to learn more but not by always going through the downs. I want to be better and I know I can and will.
I think I do this because of the Never Give Up lesson. Had I not had the failures that preceded my triumphs and learned the lessons about how to hold it together when it's not going well, I would not be where I am today. The experience of having to drag myself across the finish line when there's a thousand and one times I want to quit, when you don't feel you can make it, but somehow you do, it gives you a perspective within which to always have a shred of hope that somehow it will turn around for you. And when you have that inside, no matter how bad it looks, there is always a part of you that will continue to give it what you have.
This blog post is about My Chase for the KONA Ironman but it is also about My Chase for the person I want to be. It gives me hope that I can be a better man. But today I celebrate my Wife's Birthday. I look at my life, my wife, my kids and realize I am great already. Everything I want to be is right in front of me! The Chase? Well that's just for fun and for the feeling of being inspired versus feeling inspired!