Inspiration & Perspiration

This weekend was a great one in terms of motivational performance and all you need to understand about what drives athletes both pro and amateur.

On Friday it was Brett's moment of glory with a self-supported "Iron-Baby". This saw him complete the Ironman distance Triathlon locally in Texas, supported by a couple of friends and his family. The route he took passing his house multiple times so he could refuel etc….that fact that he completed the 'event' is not what makes this remarkable but that he had to pass his house around 10 times on the bike and run and keep going despite, I am sure, the temptation to stop! He tweeted during the event and raised over $1,000 for charity – hats off. He also trashed the frame of his bike but them's the breaks!

Next up it was the Ironman World Championship at Kona Hawaii. The birthplace of triathlon. There are two levels to interest for me here, first as someone who has completed triathlons (although never Ironman) I am interested in the event and understand it's relevance and meaning. Secondly as a Brit we have Chrissie Wellington. Considering what she has achieved she is pretty much an unknown in the UK. Her achievement, 3^rd consecutive win and setting a new women's record time, did not register on Sky Sports 24hr news coverage and got a footnote on the BBS Sports pages of its website. Truly incredible when you consider what she must put into being in the shape that she is in and that she is a world champion. If it were Paula Radcliffe she would be feted (I have nothing but admiration for Paula Radcliffe by the way) by all and receive huge coverage. I can understand that triathlon is not mainstream in terms of coverage but surely a workld champion deserves better…

The third performance is from Dean Karnazes in the Chicago Marathon, a race so good he did it twice! He ran the first lap in 03:52:17 then the second one in 03:57:28. He tweeted as he ran and talked about eating pizza and stopping at Starbucks for coffee etc. If you have read his book you will know what this guy is capable of and how he refuels on the run. The only problem he seems to face is getting calories on board (hence the pizza on the run) and I guess he needs to sleep occasionally!

Three great performances; each showing plenty of guts, determination and dedication. You cannot do what any of these three did without having mental strength to match and exceed anything you can train the body to do.

Oh and I bet they had smiles on their faces too…