Triathlon Lessons from the Serenity Prayer
There are triathlon lessons to be learned from the Serenity Prayer. [Non-Christians, just ignore the "God" part and bear with me here...] The prayer starts out like this:
[God] grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference….
This is a powerful message for triathletes on race day. There are things that happen that you cannot change, and yet there are other things you can control. You must learn to not stress out over the things that are out of your control, and take action on those you can.
Things that cannot be controlled on triathlon race day:
- Weather conditions
- How well other athletes race that day
- Decisions of the race director (e.g., if he or she makes last minute changes to the course, cancels or delays the swim)
- Other shortcomings of the race production (e.g., they run out of sport drink at an aid station, not enough volunteers)
- Unexpected bike mechanical problem
- Stupidity of others (okay, maybe this is a little harsh, but you know what I mean: maybe someone makes a knucklehead move and causes a bike wreck?)
Things related to the above that can be controlled by you:
- How well prepared you are for the weather conditions
- If it will be cold: have arm warmers, extra layers
- If it is super hot: have extra fluids on board the bike, electrolytes, etc.
- For either hot or cold: you are best prepared if you have trained in those conditions to get your body and mind used to it!
- How you race your own race. If someone else is having a stellar day, then good for them. If your rival is able to run a 7-minute mile and today you cannot muster anything faster than 7:15/mile, then all you can do is run 7:15. You cannot run their race; you can only run your own.
- If you have a specific need for a particular kind of sport drink or food during the race because your body only deals well with, for example, strawberry-kiwi flavored Carb-Boom, then you need to bring some strawberry-kiwi flavored Carb-Boom and not depend on the race director to provide it to you
- Making sure your bike is well-maintained — so hopefully you or your mechanic will identify a worn brake cable before it breaks on race day, for example
- Knowing how to change a flat tire, so that when you do get a flat, you aren’t sitting on the side of the road, helpless
- Knowing the rules of triathlon so that you do not block any other rider, know how to execute a proper pass, and generally bike in a safe manner so that you aren’t the knucklehead who causes a wreck.
The serenity prayer instructs us to accept that things are going to happen, and take action on what we can control.
So how do you get the “wisdom to know the difference” in triathlon?
Of course, you will learn from mistakes. Let’s say you show up to a race in Wisconsin in August and you think it will be warm, and it turns out to be cold and rainy and a third of the field gets hypothermia. I suspect that if you do that race again (or are in a similar situation), you will be prepared the next time.
You can mentally plan for contingencies. It may be difficult to envision every possible contingency, but you should be able to come up with a comprehensive list of possibilities. I’ve already given you a few. Sit down and make a list (on paper) and write down what you will do to respond to that situation.
You can just relax, and understand that sometimes the unexpected occurs and there is really nothing that can be done except roll with it. I did a half-marathon last year that had numerous problems. First the race started about 20 minutes late (which I really hate, but have had to learn to not get too upset about). Next, there were aid stations missing from where we had been told they would be (so I had to go without water for wayyyyyyy longer than anticipated, approximately 5 miles without an aid station of any kind, which is truly pathetic for a race that is 13.1 miles long). Then it started raining, and I mean really raining, a little more than half-way through the course and I was totally soaked to the bone (oh, and did I mention thirsty, and only able to take a sport gel sans H2O?) At the end of the race, the food was just terrible — they had advertised the race as having this massive post-race party with all kinds of local food vendors, but no. There was one guy with some bad pasta — none of the normal post-race bananas or bagels or what-not. Right now I can’t even remember if there was water. Anyway, it was a terrible race experience — so bad that it was almost unbelievable. But, I was able to just relax and not get worked up about it during the race. I shifted my focus to my running. I also focused on the course itself, which was actually quite nice — it started and ended in central Austin and was a superb course, with a mix of hills and flat sections. When the race was over, I just got the hell out of there ASAP and got home, and into some dry clothes and got some decent food to eat. What I can control now is to not sign up for a race with that race company again (assuming they are still in business).
Like all things in triathlon, it will take practice to develop the skills from the serenity prayer. Practice acceptance of the situation, and taking action to deal with it as it comes. Finally, practice rolling with the punches when you have no other options. The wisdom will come with time.
Swim/Bike/Run your way to serenity!
