I am not what you call a natural athlete. Oh I have had my success and I am competitive, but my exercise has much more to do with structure and results than kicking the crap out of the guy I am playing or racing against. It takes me practice and time and repetition to be as good as natural athletes.
I take pride in the fact that I may not be a fast runner, but I am a long runner. I work with ex-football players that still run high 4's in the forty, where I am closer to low 7's (well I don't actually know that as I haven't tested it in years, I mean really...why?) So I take pride in the fact that even though I may not be fast, I am willing to enter races, some long, some short, but I compete in events and I finish them.
I have never DNF'd a race. I started a marathon with a conservative 3:45 goal, thinking that a 3:30 was very possible. I bonked hard and finished at 4:55. Then had to get IV'd for dehydration. Had I stopped the race I wouldn't have had that problem but I read a saying that sums it up nicely. "Failure weighs but an ounce, regret weighs a pound."
I play a little racquetball and love it, but I am not very good. I can win a few games but if I get whipped I don't take it personally like some of guys who curse and hit their rackets against the wall if the ball doesn't go exactly how they want, even if they scored the point.
What really gets me though is natural athletes, non-commodore's if you will. I know that when I resume running this week (hopefully) that it will take me three weeks to get back to a solid base. That and I promised to run the Cheetah 5k at the Phoenix Zoo on May 15. So I have to be able to represent.
I have a friend, Mike from Scottsdale Running Company, who just ran Boston in 3:30. The amazing thing is that since the Chicago Marathon in 04, he has only run once to prepare for Boston and that was a 20 miler, just to see how his legs felt. That's a natural runner!
Another example is a hike up a fairly steep hill called Camelback here in Phoenix. The first time most people go up it takes 40 minutes to climb the 1.25 mile, 1500 feet climb. After a few runs, where you can remember where to push and when to relax, a reasonable time is closer to 30 minutes. I once did it in 28 minutes after climbing it twice a week for two months. One co-worker, who is not an exceptional athlete, on his first attempt reached the top in 29 minutes. And I consider myself an experienced hiker.
I take all this in stride though. I know that the one quality I have is persistence, or what I prefer to call an 'iron will'. I don't get there fast, but I take the challenge and I get there. Which I think is better than most who suffer from Common Man Syndrome (CMS) who only dream but never move or natural's who take their gift for granted.
I take pride in the fact that I may not be a fast runner, but I am a long runner. I work with ex-football players that still run high 4's in the forty, where I am closer to low 7's (well I don't actually know that as I haven't tested it in years, I mean really...why?) So I take pride in the fact that even though I may not be fast, I am willing to enter races, some long, some short, but I compete in events and I finish them.
I have never DNF'd a race. I started a marathon with a conservative 3:45 goal, thinking that a 3:30 was very possible. I bonked hard and finished at 4:55. Then had to get IV'd for dehydration. Had I stopped the race I wouldn't have had that problem but I read a saying that sums it up nicely. "Failure weighs but an ounce, regret weighs a pound."
I play a little racquetball and love it, but I am not very good. I can win a few games but if I get whipped I don't take it personally like some of guys who curse and hit their rackets against the wall if the ball doesn't go exactly how they want, even if they scored the point.
What really gets me though is natural athletes, non-commodore's if you will. I know that when I resume running this week (hopefully) that it will take me three weeks to get back to a solid base. That and I promised to run the Cheetah 5k at the Phoenix Zoo on May 15. So I have to be able to represent.
I have a friend, Mike from Scottsdale Running Company, who just ran Boston in 3:30. The amazing thing is that since the Chicago Marathon in 04, he has only run once to prepare for Boston and that was a 20 miler, just to see how his legs felt. That's a natural runner!
Another example is a hike up a fairly steep hill called Camelback here in Phoenix. The first time most people go up it takes 40 minutes to climb the 1.25 mile, 1500 feet climb. After a few runs, where you can remember where to push and when to relax, a reasonable time is closer to 30 minutes. I once did it in 28 minutes after climbing it twice a week for two months. One co-worker, who is not an exceptional athlete, on his first attempt reached the top in 29 minutes. And I consider myself an experienced hiker.
I take all this in stride though. I know that the one quality I have is persistence, or what I prefer to call an 'iron will'. I don't get there fast, but I take the challenge and I get there. Which I think is better than most who suffer from Common Man Syndrome (CMS) who only dream but never move or natural's who take their gift for granted.
3 comments:
I just almost stood up at my desk and yelled "AMEN BROTHER!" You are definately preaching to the choir...I am in no way or fashion one of these so called "natural athletes". But I TRY, and that is more than the bulk of the population is doing and I get some satisfaction knowing that I am doing what most people can't make their bodies do!
you are so right. and i think that because running and triathlon DO NOT come naturally to me, i appreciate it more. for example, my son, who recently whipped me in a 5-mile race doesn't really have any appreciation of how fast he ran. on the other hand, because it would take me a considerable amount of training to try to duplicate his effort, i'd relish the feat.
You make a great point regarding natural ability - but probably the most fascinating thing about endurance sport is that fact that there is always something to discover - wow, can I really go that far!?
So think of it this way, you are a natural athlete - a natural endurance athlete.
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