determination and a lesson learned

My brother Billy has this plaque on his wall that says, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." I like this. It certainly reflects the competitive spirit that I think he and I share. It's simple really; if you don't try something you will never succeed at it. For as much as teachers may have said that Billy lacked focus in school, his focus and determination when it came to team sports was unyielding. I think that his successes were pretty impressive as well, both then and now.

I myself am more of an individual sports person. I have played a number of team sports and see a lot of value in them. I probably would still play volleyball if I knew of a co-ed league that needed a setter. But triathlon has become my sport, and I am starting to think about races this summer after a couple years off (pregnancy and a new baby followed by a broken leg will do that to you). I was running pretty regularly before the holidays and was pleased with my 'post broken ankle' progress. Then I spent a month being sick and going to the gym was a rare occurrence for me. But I am feeling better and actually getting back into it. Or so I thought. Today I decided to run again. I did half an hour on the bike and thought I would just hop on the treadmill for a mile. Clearly the lung capacity required when running far exceeds that of cycling, because I felt like hell. Seriously. When I got to the point where my chest just hurt and I sounded like I was going to pass out, I decided I wasn't going to make the full mile running. When I told Andy about this he was really encouraging and didn't say, "Why are you running? You're recovering from pneumonia, moron!", which I am fairly certain he was thinking. I know I pushed it. I know I need more time, but like the lesson from my brother's plaque, you don't know what you can do if you don't try.