That little personal mountain

This weekend I am going to do something that occurred to me only at the end of last year. I vowed to myself that this year would be a time for some milestones and thus far I'm happy with where I am at as far as January and into Feb is concerned. Speaking to a gentleman at the gym this morning he asked 'Sam why are you training so hard?' And followed it up with 'are you hoping to pickup this summer?'.

I have to laugh at this as I've never been very successful with the ladies. Even when I was winning at school and college, I was never the one who picked up the most. Those that know me know that I'm kind of dorky (which I'll happily admit). Those times however were selfish wins and at times now I get reminded by people about how I used to be pretty decent at sport as youngster. That is why this weekend after only 3 weeks of training again I am going to complete an ocean swim.

I won't win and I won't come last and it may not be Olympian elegance to watch plus I doubt anyone will be there to watch me, but I'll get the job done. Then I hope to quietly stand up on my own personal mountain and just have a look around for a little while. Those moments in life for me eclipse the wins and the records and the tries of the past. There are other mountains that we summit with others and that is good to, but the view up there is different and when you are on your own you learn more about who you are and where you've been. In a shared journey each may have their own slant on things, but largely it's the same. A personal journey is just that and no one else will have been where you went or seen what you saw.

Why do I train so hard? The answer to this is firstly so that I don't get fat again and secondly so that I don't become a member of the 'I used to' brigade. You know the type, whenever someone says that they are doing a run, swim, tri or hike or whatever, then this lot will pipe up 'I used to be able to do that'. It annoys me because if someone could do something 15 years ago then why can't they still do it. This is why I'm doing the swim to challenge my current boundaries and to prove to myself that I still can. It's a self preservation thing.

Running together (while conquering small goals each day), stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller