February 17, 2017
I just came back from a Triathlon Event in GOA – India. It was an Olympic distance event where I first swam 1.5 km in the ocean, and then cycled for 40 km. It ended with 10 km of running on a hot, sunny day. This is my second consecutive year at GOA for this event. I took 3 hours and 39 minutes to cross the finish line.
The attitude of athletes who are into endurance sports is infectious. They are highly competitive, but simultaneously exude positivity and graciousness. All what you would want in a corporate environment, don’t you think? Mostly they complete with themselves - not with someone else. The endurance sport arena is where age is just a number - with no meaning whatsoever.
Endurance sport is a transformative and meditative game of the mind and body working together in symphony. The human body is an amazing machine capable of doing amazing feats – only if the driver of that machine determines to drive it as it deserves to be driven.
So, what is this transformative, meditative game all about? Crossing of the finish line is just a part of the overall scheme of things. It is the journey that matters more. It is the rigor of disciplined preparation and understanding of our own fragility. Methods to cope with those fragilities is what makes this sport more significant.
It is easy to give up – after all, 1.5 km swimming and 40 km cycling at around 30kmph speed is enough to tire out the common man. It is easy to give up running when your body is screaming with pain. So what do you do?
Endurance athletes thrive on the ability to talk to their minds and have that long conversation with themselves. It is the three plus hours of solitary time – rather, it is the silence that is deafening.
It is the difficult things we have done which make us learn more about our resilience. It is the time to convince the mind that what is difficult is possible – only 8 more kilometres to run! It can’t be difficult – one stride at a time!
It’s time to convince the body that it has got the energy- confidence is the energy. A confident mind exudes positive energy.
It’s time to feel the wind blowing on that sweaty face because I am running so fast!
While training for swimming English Channel, we as team undertook several expeditions into the sea. One of the events was a 5km sea swimming event off the GOA coast. The event was badly organized. Organizers put several buoys with flag on it but they did not anchor it well – 30 minutes into the swim, they all floated away!
We had to swim 2.5 km straight into the sea and return back. Once you swim so far into the sea, you can hardly see the shore. Two kilometres into the sea, I lost my swim orientation in the absence of any markers! In the massive waters, I was trying to see the target point on a foggy morning with no other human nearby!
That was the day, the strength of my mind and the hard work of my training destroyed my fear of adversity in the middle of the ocean. I started enjoying the push and pull of the tide and loved being part of that massive beast. There are some wonderful views one must see from the middle of the ocean with water to the eye level. Only sea swimmers know that!
When I was swimming in an area called the ‘Separation Zone’ in the English Channel, I saw a few jelly fishes. They looked light brown, umbrella shaped, just hanging in the water. I kept swimming. Just a couple of meters away, I saw thousands of jellyfish layer after layer deep in the water, as far as my eyes can see! I was startled – these things sting and are very painful! I tried to get away – but there was nowhere else to go.
And then I started enjoying the sight of these little creatures – yes, they were pricking me - yet, the school of jellyfishes presented their own enjoyable pattern. It is the virtue of mind and body at peace working together making all the adventures we do worthwhile.
It is a beautiful world, and we are blessed to live in it. Be it the natural beauty of vast expanse of water, or the long stretch of cycling or running trial on those beautiful snow-capped mountains waiting to be scaled, it is all there for us to experience fully. It takes an effort of the mind and body to be at harmony to generate the abundance of confidence and positivity.
Life indeed is beautiful! Good luck!