Tell me that something is impossible, that there is little chance of getting it done and through resourcefulness and stubborn wilfulness, I will try to demonstrate the possible. Tell me I can’t do something and I will find a way. While not always characteristics to be proud of for sure, they have over the years permitted me to accomplish and persist where others might have chosen to move on. External obstacles put before me are somehow overcome.

Internal, self-imposed obstacles are a different story. Fact is, the greatest obstacles I have ever had to face have come from within. Race directors and Mother Nature having nothing on what I am capable of throwing at myself!

This reality is no more apparent than when I am on the race course. While coaches, mentors, training partners, family members and even a legion of healthcare providers all play their part in getting me to the starting line, only I can get myself to the finish line. Races ask me to entrust myself to my "self." That is why I get nervous before races. "What will I do to myself out there? Will I be friend or foe? Will I feed courage or fuel a meltdown?" I am still far too easily seduced by those creeping thoughts that would paint me as a quitter, as someone with internal reserves too shallow for the task at hand, as someone too willing to accept defeat.

Race days are telling ….they provide me with moments where I am forced to face my greatest obstacle. Me.

Still tri’n