Did Not Finish

My blog the other day brought back memories of another Cross Country race in high school.

I was part way through my sophomore year, my first year of high school and as a runner. Things were going well. I'd lost 20 lbs of fat and gained it back as muscle. The real races, against runners from other schools were just starting. It was at a home meet, that this story happens.

The race started like normal. I was as excited as ever to run. Maybe even more so. The signal was given and a few dozen teenagers took off. It felt good, and there was a lot of adrenaline in my veins for that first bit. I was on a familiar course with new opponents to gauge myself against.

By the time I was in the second mile of the 3.2, the adrenaline was gone, and I was left running on my own strength and determination. But I was holding strong. I knew I could do it. I'd done it before, afterall.

I started into the third mile and I was hurting. It was hard. I was winded and my side hurt and my legs were sore. It was too hard. Slowly, I convinced myself that something must be wrong. It shouldn't hurt this much.

Then I stopped.

I lay panting in the grass while other runners passed me by. A few of my teammates voiced concern for me. I waved them on. After a few minutes I got up and walked back to the starting line.

I got back and my coach immediately let into me. He didn't yell, but I could tell he was disappointed. I made my excuses and continued on the day.

The next day in school, I went into the coaches office and saw the big poster-board he'd made to track our times and such. Next to my name, in black sharpie, were the letters "DNF."

I was ashamed. I'd seen those letters before, by the names of some of my teammates, but not by mine. Did not finish. It was the mark of failure.

I ran for two years, the mile and 2 mile in Track, and the 5k in Cross Country. Never again did the letters DNF appear by my name.

I had another teammate whose drive amazed me. His name was Mike. One time, at a large invitational, meaning there were several schools and hundreds of runners, he placed very highly in his race. Despite sharp pain in his leg, he ran. Only after the race did we discover that his leg was broken. He had a stress fracture that ran from the top of his Tibia to the bottom.

He ran 3.2 miles on a broken leg.

That, my friends, is determination. We should be just at strong.

How to Win?

I'm not always the kind of guy that learns from life experiences. Really, I'm pretty daft. Recently, while running, a memory of my high school cross country days came back to me:

In one of my first races as a cross country runner, I found myself running most of the race with another runner from my school. Kerry. Kerry was tall and skinny and was an experiences sprinter and hurdler. It was his first cross country race as well, I believe.

As we neared the finish line, we both started to sprint in, trying to beat the other. Sadly, he destroyed me in those last hundreds of feet.

Impressively, I did learn something from that defeat. I learned that to beat Kerry, I needed to be way ahead of him when the finish line came into view. In the next race, I did just that. I beat him in the long game, so he wouldn't have a chance to beat me in the wild sprint to the finish.

Lesson Learned.

Or, was it?

How often now do I look at my situation, at my opponent, and analyze how to win? The key in the story was to not allow Kerry to use his incredible strength against me. I created a situation where his sprinting ability never came into play.

I'm older now. I've left the imaginary universe of high school and joined the slightly more real world. My opponent is no longer a 6'5" sprinter. It is now me against the world. Not the people of the world, mind you. I like to think that most of them are on my side.

So, how does one win against the world? If we apply the lesson I learned in high school, it's easily explained:  Just don't play the world's game. You have to beat the world with your strength, and don't let it use it's strengths against you.

So, what are your strengths? What are your world's?

Nerd Fitness Challenge

I never blogged about my last challenge on nerdfitness.com, but I should have. It's awesome.

First of all, you create a character. You chose a race and a class. Then you ive yourself some starting stats. That's right, it's the DnD of fitness.  Here's my charater currently:

Trovan
Level 2
Half-elf Ranger
STR 5
DEX 2
STA 5
CON 3
WIS 4
CHA 3


With each 6 week challenge (one is starting today), you set goals and assign the stat points you'll earn for each goal.

Here are my goals for the next 6 weeks:

1. Exercise 6 days a week. (STR 1, DEX 1, CON 1, STA 1) No matter what. I usually do good for a week or two, and then fail miserably for a month or two. The goal here is to break that cycle. 

2. Track diet and eat healthy. (CON 4) I have the same cyclical problems with diet that I do with exercise. And again, I will break that cycle. To accomplish this goal and get full points, I will track my food consumption every day, and I will be below my goal calories 6 out of 7 days a week.

3. Get to 10 unassisted pull-ups. (STR 4) This was one of my goals last time. I got from 2 to 5 without really even trying that hard. If I work at it the whole 6 weeks this time, I will make it for sure.

4. Blog 2 times a week. (WIS 1, CHA 1) I love to blog, and to write, but my poor blog has sat untouched for months now. This is goal will get me doing again something I love.


As you all know, I'm a lazy SOB. That's why I set goals that require some dedication and consistency.


Now, since today is the start of the challenge, I will definitely be working hard to start off right. I didn't work out this morning, since I needed extra recovery time from the weekend. The hike I went on yesterday took a lot out of me. I will exercise tonight though. It's an Insanity day.


Also, I'm tracking my food at myfitnesspal.com. Which has always been a helpful tool, but I've not been consistent at it.