It’s interesting, inspiring, and validating to be an endurance athlete in the age of social media and be privy to the immediacy and personal disclosure of some of our sporting heroes. It used to be when there were only print media sources such as Inside Triathlon, you would get race results and analysis well after the fact. And of course because column space was limited in print media, a lot of the truly interesting and juicy stuff had to be left out.
In retrospect, wouldn’t it have been cool to be subscribed to Scott Tinley’s Twitter account back in the day? Natural personalities, I believe, would have flourished even more with an opportunity to spout off right there and then. How about a Greg Welch Instagram feed? That would have been great for Welchie’s brand and his fans.
For those who remember, one of the more entertaining features of the Slowtwitch website was back in the sunset years of The Terminator’s aka Skid’s aka Scott Molina’s pro triathlon career. Molina wrote the occasional article under the provocative masthead “Skid Marks.” Molina would fly the flag of unabashed political incorrectness on a range of topics from Ironman to parenting, and naturally stammtisch (check out the link at the bottom of the page for more on that).
But enough wallowing along memory lane as this article is really about the here and now. In this week’s Slowtwitch, Tim Carlson has compiled some of the year’s best triathlon quotes. Although none of quotes, are as poetic as the words of a Sagan or a Voigt, one of this year’s gems comes from yet another non-native English speaker, this year’s Ironman World Champion Jan Frodeno. In a post-race interview, Frodeno illuminated the dark places that were haunting him him during parts of his run while he led the race. Frodeno quipped, “I did want to give up three times actually. I wanted to pull off. I was thinking I will make up some excuse. Make it sound good and go home.” As you can see, feeling like hell and coming up with creative ways to quit a race is not something that only middle and back of the pack athletes experience.
Another inspirational piece of self-disclosure from this year came from Lionel Saunders. Once again, this dark place that Saunders was in, was while leading the race. On his way to producing the fastest Ironman race (brand not distance) ever back in November, there was a part in the later stages of the run where he was starting to fade and feel like heck. To keep himself fired up, he started yelling out loud to himself, “C’mon, C’mon, let’s go” (along with I am sure, some non publishable motivational phrases). He later admitted to Bob Babbitt, spectators along the race course and his fellow competitors likely thought he had mentally snapped but it underscores to the extent that self doubt and anger can exist while we race.
Getting to the finish line of a race, be it a 5K or an Ironman can be incredibly difficult, especially if you are doing it right. Sometimes the self-doubt and hopelessness of the situation (even if you are leading the race) require some of us (like Ryan Boulter and myself) to harness the dark side and use some creative solutions to get us to the finish line.
What’s your dark secret that gets you through a race? Share it here.
And for the fans of Molina and beer, this link is for you. http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/features/skidmarks/stammtisch.html