"Don't Stop Believing" Journey to Ironman

Team One-Foot-In-The-Grave Shoots for Kona

On the member's forum over at Endurance Nation, we've been hootin' it up about being geezer athletes--all stemming from the New York Times article I posted about last week. A small group of us have decided that we will compete in the Ironman World Championships in Kona when we're 100. We're gonna win our age groups too, against what we are sure will be stiff competition. (No age-discrimination pun intended with the "stiff" reference!)   Resident funny guy Mike, aka Assman, summed up our training plans in this "press release." (They call the guy Assman, you're wondering? Let's just say it has to do with bike seats, and chafing, and emollients....'nuff said!)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Monrovia, CA]--(PRNewsWire)--Endurance Nation, Inc. announces formation of ENGroup Kona 100. This 600+ week program is specially designed for propelling older triathletes to achieve their maximum potential in not just earning a Kona slot on their hundredth birthday, but also winning their age group! Said Endurance Nation co-founder Rich Strauss: "It's not just about showing up. I'll pit our geezers against ANY other coaching plan - we'll make those other old farts look stooopid."

"Our plan," commented co-founder Patrick McCrann, "takes the average MOP middle aged athlete and walks them through six hundred weeks of training. Our training schedule PDFs are published in a special 56pt font that has been specially designed with older athletes in mind."

Interested athletes can register by uploading a scanned image of their AARP card to:
endurancenation.us/OneFootInTheGrave

Hope They Tap That Energy Life Long

You know, I find inspiration in my children every day. In a world where the messages focus on young people derailing like Britany, or in full-blown vapidity like Paris, it's easy to forget that it's all filled with great kids striving, working, achieving.

Three of four of my boys happen to be competitive swimmers. One swam collegiately, and the other two are currently club swimmers. All four of my sons have their black belts in Kenpo karate. Talk about toiling in obscurity! At the high school, the winningest sports team in the history of the school is the swim team. They get almost no recognition compared with the ball sport teams. Karate? Well, that's certainly not mainstream in the least.

The other day my third son, shown in the picture here that was in the local paper this week, that he bases his entire life on the tenets he learned in karate. He said, "It's at the basis of all I do." He went on to explain how the mental and physical discipline of karate he applies to his swim training and studies in school.

Today I took my youngest son to his swim meet (warm-up at 7 am at a pool 30 minutes away, mind you), and I am always so moved by the hundreds of kids there working to achieve their best. No one is gonig to the Olympics. Very few even reach high levels of regional competition. But the discipline, the sense of competition, the striving to achieve is what is really at the heart of the thing.

And in order to strive and achieve, each one of those kids has to access that positive energy--the flow-- that is always waiting to be tapped. You have to open the valve, let it roar, and really KNOW you can succeed. This energy is supported by all they've put into their training. Then they dive off the blocks--each time a quest for personal greatness. Even if these young people can't express this experience--or even know they're doing it--they're learning what it takes to be open, and let it rip. My hope is that every one of them becomes cognizant of the power they have within, and is able to unleash that surge in all they do for the rest of their lives.