{"id":549,"date":"2017-06-28T18:28:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T18:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/?p=549"},"modified":"2017-06-28T18:28:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T18:28:48","slug":"its-not-just-about-you-62817","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/28\/its-not-just-about-you-62817\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Not Just About You &#8211; 6\/28\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Monster-Dash-Half.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Monster-Dash-Half-165x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"165\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Monster-Dash-Half-165x300.jpg 165w, https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Monster-Dash-Half.jpg 528w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yes, I realize that ultimately, the race is run by you and the accomplishments get credited to you.  But in the end, it\u2019s not just about you.  The only way that it could be is if you\u2019re not a PT athlete, have a genetic background of a mix along the lines of Michael Phelps\/Lance Armstrong (without the doping)\/Apolo Ohno and are independently wealthy.  That probably covers .00001% of all Triathletes out thre.<\/p>\n<p>For the rest of the Triathlon universe, there\u2019s someone else helping you to succeed.  Whether it\u2019s a coach making sure you\u2019re on track, sponsors making sure you\u2019ve got everything you need to succeed, or a guide helping you if you\u2019re a PT athlete, others have your back and are helping.  Because of that, there are two-way streets to ensure that you succeed.<\/p>\n<p>As a visually impaired athlete that\u2019s part of Dare2Tri\u2019s Development Team, there\u2019s a long list of people that are helping me.  I couldn\u2019t do any of this without it.  As such, I need to make sure that I\u2019ve got several different pieces in line before the gun\/horn goes off \u2013 training\/race prep, guide and proper branding.<\/p>\n<p>While I know there are hurdles, I\u2019m doing everything that I can to get the training in.  I\u2019ll admit that the running is the biggest \u2018fail\u2019 at this point.  But I\u2019m still trying to push forward with it \u2013 even if it\u2019s sometimes at a snail\u2019s pace.  And it isn\u2019t just for personal pride or the desire to continue moving forward, it\u2019s also to have a good end result for those that have put their support and resources behind me.  <\/p>\n<p>Early on, one of my guides told me \u2018it\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s about you and your race\u2019.  At the time, I understood and agreed with them.  However, experiences over the last two years make me disagree with that sentiment.  As I said at the beginning, what gets publicly reflected\/recorded is the athlete (and not the guide).  Even still, the guide is giving up their time and their race to help ensure that you have a successful one.  Both through the time you spend practing and training, as well as race day.  In return for that, I believe that you need to ensure not only that you\u2019re ready to race but that you\u2019re both on the same page for the expected and unexpected throughout.  If my mindset was \u2018I\u2019m running this race, just be equipment\u2019, not only would I fail, but I\u2019d also lose guides quickly.  It needs to be a two-way street of communication, respect and commitment for everything to work.<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned earlier, I could not be doing any of the Triathlon stuff (practices, races, etc.) without a lot of support from a long list of people.  For the organizations\/companies that have provided this support, not only do I want to make sure that I\u2019ve got the branding appropriately displayed (especially given if it\u2019s a supported race or not), but I want to have a good \u2018end product\u2019 for them.  I can\u2019t always control what happens in a race (more on that in the next post), but I do need to be doing everything possible to have a good race and deal with whatever adversity happens.<\/p>\n<p>They could have given that support or those resources to others; but they chose to give it to me.  This is one of many reasons that I do not believe in DNF (Did Not Finish).  The best example of this being last year where I chose to walk the bike back 3-4 miles after double-flatting and finish the run rather than pulling out  As I said, you can\u2019t control everything that happens on the course, but you can control yourself.  You can let a situation break you (whether it\u2019s mental or physical), or you can push through it.  And quite honestly, I believe that you owe it to everyone supporting you to give it your all every time.  That\u2019s the only way to push forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, I realize that ultimately, the race is run by you and the accomplishments get credited to you. But in the end, it\u2019s not just about you. The only way that it could be is if you\u2019re not a PT athlete, have a genetic background of a mix along the lines of Michael Phelps\/Lance Armstrong &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/28\/its-not-just-about-you-62817\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">It&#8217;s Not Just About You &#8211; 6\/28\/17<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[266,265,30,179,283,7],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james","tag-caf","tag-challenged-athletes-foundation","tag-dare2tri","tag-dare2tri-paratriathlon-club","tag-hammer-nutrition","tag-james-gilliard"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":550,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}