Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Inspiring words

I was reminded today of a quote that a friend once shared. It goes something like this:

Somewhere out there, another runner is training while you are not. He will beat you in your next race.

I know that's not exactly the quote, but it captures the essence.

I wasn't feeling great after work today -- seems like that's the norm these days -- and I was tired because I was wide awake at 3:30am and barely got back to sleep before having to leave for work. I met up with my sister and was able to grind out 5 miles outside in the cold, but fresh, air, but I didn't really enjoy much of it (the run, not the company). I had the thought that I'd get some laps done in the pool afterwards, but through most of mile 5 I was convincing myself that would be a bad idea because it was an almost certainty that I'd just sink to the bottom of the pool.

I went anyway. It wasn't so bad.

I did about 1000 yards and was thinking I'd wrap it up and get out of the pool. Then I noticed the guy in the lane next to me was still swimming. He started just before I did.

My friend's quote popped into my head... I imagined the guy in the next lane was a woman in my age group in my next triathlon.

I kept swimming.

7 comments:

Stephen said...

I hope you thanked him for motivating you to grind out a few more laps. One lap/step/pedal at a time. Keep it up!

Runnin-From-The-Law said...

Pretty sure that's CoachT's quote!

Maggs said...

I an trying to use that quote to get my out the door to run hill intervals.

solarpowered said...

RFTL - yep :D

Charisa said...

Nice job on the workouts :)

Frankie said...

Way to stick it out Lora!

CoachT said...

It was Tom Fleming (a top U.S. distance runner in the late seventies) - he said:

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."

Nice job, btw.