You need the finish line to realize you never needed it
Race Reflections from Coaching at IronMan Florida 2024
What’s the big deal about watching people cross finish lines in big races?
“I can see how you can get addicted to the finish line” I said to Tribal Training founder and head coach Ryan Dreyer watching the first few of our Tribal Athletes hit the red carpet at IronMan Florida this past weekend. We’d been running around all day live coaching our guys in the swim, bike, and run, and after 12 hours the first wave of our 10 competing athletes began hitting the finish line.
This was my fist IronMan experience not just as a coach, but in any capacity. As the ‘athletic philosopher’ I use these race experiences as primary evidence to validate, interrogate, and expand my own ideas on the value and utility of sport and physical activity to individual flourishing. I’m an applied phenomenologist, simply put a philosopher who is interested in the meaning of experiences and how we can observe, understand, and investigate them to live healthier, happier, fuller, more purposeful lives.
After crossing finish lines myself and watching the athletes and individuals I coach pass their own, I’ve gotten a new and profound understanding of the power of the finish line. It’s something I uncovered earlier this year live coaching and competing in our 100 mile team race (did you see our doc yet, the one I wrote about in the last article?)
‘Be and Become’
I’ve written about this is past race recaps but it’s obvious to me now that this is the particular role of high level athletic competitions for adults. It’s a place where the distractions and obligations of the ordinary world fade away to reveal a sacred present moment. And in realizing that present moment authentically, from the heart, and with pure intention, an individual transcends themselves, shattering limitations and beckoning beyond to even greater potential.
By both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ the finish line acts as a magnet for self development because of the extraordinary self-knowledge you uncover through the process. Let’s break it down with a few examples from this past race.
‘To Be’
Modernity can be defined by one word: speed. How do we make things faster? Think download times off the internet all the way back to moving from horses to steam powered locomotives. In that chase for speed, time has also sped up. You live a fast life at a hectic speed, zooming from one responsibility to the next, never having a chance to catch your breath. This constant moving distracts you from a deeper purpose, you never slow down long enough to figure out what truly drives you.
Finding that internal desire happens in the present moment.
It’s contentment
It’s gratititude
It’s appreciation
It’s humility
It’s peace
But how do you slow down time to find it when its moving so fast?
The answer is physical challenge. This is why meditation is so hard for so many (and why I get a lot of my 1-1 clients to do it), sitting still and not moving is almost harder than moving at times. The intensity of exercise and sport force us into the present moment through the reality of physical pain and exertion. It’s hard to focus on the depression of the past and the anxiety of the future when your heart feels like it’s going to jump out of your throat because you’re doing hill sprints.
You can find this just in training, but you find it strongly in a competiton. The depth of that intensity forces you into a more determined present that just a hard training session. The public performance and accountability of the contest provides extra accountability and thus determination. You train hard, struggle, sacrifice, and then just evelope yourself in the experience. You get to ‘just be.’
I remember my first backyard ultra, another runner looked at me and asked “What do you think the hardest part of the day is today?” I was a bit puzzled and looked back “Nothing, this is easy compared to all of the responsibilities I have on my daily plate being a dad, husband, entreprenuer, coach, and all that comes with that. Today all I have to do is race and focus on myself!” I get to JUST BE.
A few of our athletes showed that exact same energy on the race.
AB: “That swim was SO MUCH FUN”
ZB: “I’m enjoying myself biking next to the Ocean today”
SB: “What’s there to frown about, I’m having too much fun.”
KM: “I found the pain and now I can find my way through it, just like I hoped.”
PL: “Moving steady on this run no matter what, keeping my smile”
Despite the immense challenge of taking on a IronMan (2.4 mile open water swim, 112 mile road bike, 26.2 mile swim) our athletes relish the ability to find space in the present moment. Even when things are going bad.
In that present moment you strip away the extra noise and hone in on the internal signal you’re too busy to find in the chaos of day to day life. This is where you find perspective on what really matters.
‘To Become’
But that’s just half of the magic of these finish lines. The entire process of aiming towards it from the initial moment of commitment, the moment you sign up for the race, orients you towards a heroic journey. You want that finish line to transform you into a greater version of yourself.
But it’s not the finish line itself that produces the transcendence, it’s the entire journey and process. It’s having to figure out how to fit in workouts while fulfilling your other obligations. It’s having to fight hard through grueling training sessions when you’d rather quit. It’s dialing in on nutrition and sleep and saying ‘no’ to social situations that don’t match your new goals. The process produces the transcendence.
You need the finish line in order to orient you towards the STARTING LINE. To become a person who isn’t afraid to go after something big, sacrifice to work towards achieving it, and being courageous to put it all on the line in public.
Most people miss this part of the equation and simply hope the breakthrough occurs by finishing the race. So it’s more about a willingness to race and take on the responsibility seriously that unlocks the potential each individual hopes to find through the journey of training and competing.
Then when you DO cross the finish line it all hits in a moment of spectacular realization. A few of the moments crossing the line at IMFL testify to this aspect of ‘becoming.’
CP: From ‘mentally broke’ after the first half of the swim to coaching ZB across the line of his first IronMan and coming across in triumph with PL
MB: Emotional breakdown with his wife realizing a life long dream done the right way
BB: In shock at 1 year of endurance training from barely able to swim to full Ironman
Takeaways
Ultimately, it’s this powerful duality of ‘be’ and ‘become’ that provides the beauty of atheltic competition to the good life, a life of flourishing and excellence. We find ourselves in the moment exactly as we are and make peace with it: BE. We realize our potential rising and unlocking new levels of self knowledge and mastery by bringing all the lessons and growth together in one single grand play: BECOMING.
If you’re on the fence about using sport as a vehicle for personal development I’m telling you this is the nudge you need to get on the right side.
The race isn’t about your time and how it stacks up to the other competitors
The race isn’t about bragging to your friends and family that you’re ‘badass.’
The race isn’t about a one time thing that changes you without conscious thought
It’s the orientation of a mode of being, of living the athletic life, a heroic life. A life defined by the virtue of honest struggle and humility through achievement. A life defined by striving, sacrificing, daring, dreaming, winning, losing, learning, and loving.
Where the paradox of choosing to ‘be’ or to ‘become’ becomes solved through your resolve.
Consider this a broadside transmission to your internal signal that demands MORE. Demand the finish line not because of the outcome but because of the process, it’s what will take you to the next level.
Many of my articles aim you here and teach you how to live this athletic life. You have it within you to go after this life on your own. But most need a guide, a mentor, a teacher, a friend, to show them how and keep them accountable towards their best self. If you desire to find yourself in the arena and breakthrough limits you can’t seem to get past on your own, send me a message using the button below and let’s work together on using sports to help you ‘be’ and ‘become’ your best self.