Hawaii Events In April
Objectives of the Ironman Triathlon, drowning and Rats Bold
I learned a valuable lesson Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. This bit of wisdom is summed up by a quote from Thomas Carlyle: "A man without aim is like a ship without a rudder."
In addition to simply finish the race, I was not really a goal. My challenge for the past four years has been to go to Kona – to finish in the top 5 in my division at any Ironman qualifying race in North America and get a slot to finish with the best triathletes in the world. After seven races in four Ironman years, I finally reached that goal, and finished fourth at Ironman Arizona in April 2006 with a time of 10 hours, 15 minutes. I was mad joy – I had finally done it. I thought about it. I qualified to compete directly with the best athletes in the world championships Infamous World Ironman in Kona, Hawaii. Participate in the historic event in Hawaii was elated at my reward.
But as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "The reward of a thing well done is having done." My reward has been received on path back in April, when I succeeded in achieving my goal – the race in Hawaii was itself no reward. It was just a long, brutally hot and painful 12 hours of playing the 140.6 miles of desolate lava fields.
Why? Because I had no goal to Hawaii side of the simple finish. And from the moment the gun went off to signal the start swimming at 7:00 am on Saturday morning in the bay of Kailua-Kona, everything I could think of was the finish line. This is not a way to do an Ironman.
Mr. Richter of the Johns Hopkins Medical School has made an experiment that attempted to measure the incentive effect of having a goal. The experiences of placing rats in cylinders of water that are thirty inches depth of eight inches wide. After a short period, half the rats were temporarily saved by being out of the bottle for a few seconds, then turn right to water. The other half were not. The group has been given hope swam for more three days. The other rats drowned almost immediately.
The rats knew there was a chance to be saved again had a goal – to stay alive until the next rescue. The other group had no goal, so they just gave up. I think this is kind of who I arrived in Kona on Saturday – I did not really end, so I kind of checked everything. It is a very painful way to race an Ironman. It is for a very long, very hard day!
I learned about the need for a worthy goal. We are motivated by challenges bold are only slightly out of reach. Ironman Hawaii win was not even in the field of possible outcomes, and setting somewhere in The midfield was better than I could hope for. After all, I was running with the best Ironman triathletes in the world. I thought just go to the line Arrival give me interesting enough to enjoy the epic event, but obviously I need more than that.
This was an important lesson and one day I will never forget.
About the Author
About Greg Kolodziejzyk:
Greg Kolodziejzyk is a Motivational Speaker , and successful software entrepreneur who holds 2 Guinness world records for the most distance travelled by human power in one day on both land and on water. Greg has also completed over a dozen Ironman triathlons including qualifying for and competing at Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
Greg’s next project is something that has never been done before. He plans on crossing the Pacific ocean from Canada to Hawaii under his own power in a custom made, 24 foot long x 3 foot wide completely encapsulated pedal powered boat.
Greg’s motivational speech titled “Bold!” is an impactful commentary about the kind of attitude that it takes to accomplish a dream. Greg has lived his life by the words of German Poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe “What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it, for Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Greg’s spirit is contagious and his message is vital.
http://www.human-power.com
Hawaii, My Hawaii Cruise
