We want to see your Triathlon, Cycling, & Run Pictures
True story. I was in the gym recently using a rope climbing machine. Basically, it was a heavy rope attached to a set of pulleys. There was a video monitor attached and as you pulled the rope down, an animated person on the screen climbed a rope up the side of a mountain. Stop for too long and he descended back to earth. Fortunately, he didn’t fall realistically, and he was not injured when my arms inevitably gave out.
The little rope climber safely on the ground
Now, the climbing machine isn’t the point of the story, but I can’t help but wonder how much harder I would have pulled if the little figure did appear to be in danger if I stopped. But I digress. The point is that the rope machine was located on the second level and it overlooked the basketball court. It was a full sized court and there were four baskets available. Rather than watch my animated workout companion, I elected to watch the action on the court. On this day, there were people using each of the four nets. On one end a couple of guys were playing a game of pick up and at each of the other three nets, people were practicing or just horsing around.
On one end I noticed a lady shooting by herself. She was mixing in lay ups and free throws. While she was certainly better than me, it didn’t seem as if she was an expert. A decent number of her layups circled the rim and then fell outside the basket and her free throw percentage seemed to be less than 50%. I could tell that her practice session was nearing an end as the time between shots increased and it appeared that she was running out of things to do. Then as she was walking off the court, she decided to try a seemingly one in thousand shot. She walked to the free throw line, turned her back to the basket, and then heaved the ball backwards without looking at the net. She then spun around to watch.
I was mesmerized and stopped pulling on the ropes. My little animated man began to plummet to the ground as a I turned fully toward the court below and put my hands on the rails. It was like the ball was guided by magnets as it fell cleanly into the net! The woman’s face lit up and she started looking for someone to confirm the shot! Unfortunately, everyone else was engrossed in their own game and for a moment, she thought no one had seen the magic. Her face dropped and she literally looked lost. Then her eyes looked up and saw me leaning on the rail. The sole observer. Her face lit up again and she jumped up and down and pointed at me.
“You saw it?” She mouthed up at me. I gave her two thumbs up as confirmation of the shot. That’s all it took. She had a permanent grin as she skipped over, picked up the ball and left the court. For whatever reason, I think my smile was as big as hers and I felt great the rest of the day.
So, you might ask, how does this have anything to do with Cycling, Running, Swimming, and/or Triathlon? Well, thank you for asking. You see, the lesson I learned is that joy and happiness can come in a variety of different forms. There’s clearly the joy in the accomplishment (her face lit up after making the shot), but there’s also joy in sharing (she really wanted someone to see that shot). Finally, there’s joy in just watching and connecting with the participant. I was honestly excited for the lady who made that great shot and it was even better when she saw that someone was watching.
Now, many people subscribe to a line of thinking that says bragging is inappropriate. And we get it. We really do. There’s plenty of hot air in the world and quite a few “overcooked hams” (not talking about food either) snapping pictures and perhaps overstating their situation.
However…we believe that when the accomplishment is legit and you’ve worked hard to achieve a goal, then you have a right to share. Actually, we may say you even have something of an obligation to share. We’re serious. Your story and your pictures, may provide that little bit of motivation someone, somewhere needs when they’re having a tough time. I suspect you know what we’re talking about. It’s that feeling when you’ve been training for months and still have months to go until your race. When you’re tired and you start questioning your ability to go on. Those times when every day consists of getting up, training, eating, working, training again and then sleeping until you start the cycle again. It’s on those types of days when that picture of you crossing the finish line, may be just enough to keep them going. By saving their training, you might just save their race!
We're motivated by this great picture of Sally Stresnak setting a PR at IM Chattanooga 70.3.
Plus, maybe there’s additional incentive in knowing that everyone At Coeur Sports wants to see you succeed. We’re honored when you select us to provide your training and racing gear and we admit that sometimes we live vicariously through our customers. Seeing someone in a Coeur outfit crossing the line thrills us beyond belief.
Elisa York Wilson is all smiles and so are we!
So, the punchline here is…please keep those race and finish line pictures coming! Post them on social media and send them to us via email. Just keep em coming. You’ll make the day for us and possibly many others!
Happy Training and Racing!
Your friends at Coeur