Courage: Noun. Defined as the ability or willingness to confront fear, danger, uncertainty or intimidation.
We have mentioned it before but Coeur is French for heart and the root of the word courage. Or more precisely the abstract noun “courage” since I suppose you can’t actually touch it.
So, why does that matter? To answer that question, we’ll have to go back a couple of months.
Coeur sponsored a Super Sprint triathlon in Las Vegas during Interbike. In addition, to falling in love with the Super Sprint format (swim, bike run, swim, bike, run), we also saw an example of athletic courage.
Heather, who was one of the racers, came out of the swim a few second behind the lead group and started her ITU, style jump onto her bike. We think her feet and shoes were wet and because of that and the speed with which she was mounting the bike, she went over onto the concrete. The fall cost her a good 15 to 20 seconds, which in this format seems like an eternity.
Now if it were me, I might have picked myself up and walked right over to the VIP tent and started drinking. Heavily. But not Heather. She did just the opposite. She got on the bike and started absolutely hammering! Without any assistance from anyone else, (it was draft legal) she, through sheer force of will, pulled herself back into contention. And since the race contained some of the best ITU girls in the world, this was no small feat.
After the race, someone mentioned that she should have received an award for the most courageous move of the day.
Fast forward a couple weeks to Ironman Kona. You can see the full story on our blog post (coeursports.com) but If you have ever been to Kona, you know that there are a couple of relatively short but significant inclines around the hot corner and the transition area. While walking up one of the hills, we looked over to our left and happened to see one of the Challenged Athlete Foundation ("CAF") competitors in her race chair. She was a petite woman and was at a dead stop about halfway up a hill. We had that feeling that we were about to see in person the cruel reality of a DNF.
Again, in an amazing demonstration of physical and mental courage, she (Minda Dentler) dug deep and found that secret reservoir of strength. Not only did she make it up the hill, she also became the first female hand chair racer to finish Kona.
Seed sprouted!
With all of that as backdrop, we’re pleased to announce that Coeur Sports has created the Heart and Courage award. We’re reaching out to Race Directors to introduce the award. The concept is that the athlete (or athletes) that make the bravest move, have the most courageous race and/or in some way exhibit tremendous heart on the field of competition, will be eligible for the award. Initially, we’re thinking that the award will consist of some amount of cash (always good) and Coeur product. We’re hoping to expand the offering to include more and we sincerely hope it will in some small way, encourage people to do their best and show their best.
Since this has come about on short notice, we haven’t had much time to promote the first race where we’re giving the award. It will, in fact be this weekend at the Fearless F-1 Super Sprint in San Diego! So if you’re racing the event, be on the lookout for us. And reach out to us if anyone racing has an amazing story to tell.
We hope you have enjoy the format and we hope you all demonstrate heart and courage during the event!