I have wrecked my brain trying to explain why this quote from Steve Prefontaine resonates so strongly with me. Perhaps, in the end, those that that have been following me, it speaks for itself.
"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. "I am obviously not the lead-from-the-front aggressive that PRE was, nor do I have his physical ability. Inside all of us however is the potential to see if you have enough guts.
Steve Prefontaine
4 comments:
Hmmm, I don't have that reaction to that quote! My reaction is... hmmm, isn't a deep-seated need to punish oneself kind of pathological????
I'm pretty sure most of us who've done an IM have asked WHY we have the need to punish ourselves (on the bike) and then why we have to punish ourselves EVEN MORE (during the run).
Maybe that is why it resonates with you. It does with me as well. But in my case the opponent is ME.
I left seeing who has enough guts back in the Marines. Not that I will turn down a free trip to the toughest mountain bike race in the world (or any other toughest race in the world... race directors, please e-mail me, I'll put a story in my magazine), but the exhuasting pace, then turning it up even more, type training and racing has long since passed me by. These days I'm more apt to tell myself, "slow down, you don't have anything to gain by going this hard." I still do go all out in races from time to time when I get caught up in the moment, but then I punish myself later when I miss an afternoon with the kids because I'm incapacitated on the couch.
And it can be 'small' guts too as, waking up early for a race while half of the city is still asleep on an Sunday morning!!!
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