Embrace the Wait
There are two important parts of a running race, regardless of the distance or terrain. There is a place the race STARTS and a place the race STOPS. Easy! Every racer must start the race at a designated place or time and continue until the finish, at which point they stop. There are many decisions to be made along the way, but a race always starts with a decision to START and a decision to STOP.
Races are similar to our everyday life decisions. We decide to start something. Start exercising. Start getting up earlier. Start hanging out with people that make us feel good. On the other hand, we can decide to stop too. Stop a career. Stop unhealthy eating. Stop staying up so late. Stop wearing shoes too small! With two decisions to make it seems like life should be easy! We start or stop, that’s it!
Except it’s not. There’s something else. WAIT. Ugh, this is my least favorite! Waiting, at least to me, means spinning my wheels. It means uncertainty. It means it’s out of my control! In a world of making decisions based on start and stop it means we are neither. It’s a gray area. Do you know where I learned to embrace WAIT as a viable decision? From a race!
At 8:30am I toed the starting line at my 6th appareance at the Powerman World Championships. The run went off and I started the race. The next 7 hours would be spent running, cycling, and running some more. Eventually I would cross the finish line and stop. I hoped to be in the top 10, but I knew I could possibly get to the top 3.
The other American in the elite wave was a good friend. We found ourselves in a bit of a deficit after the first 6 mile run but together on the bike. Although we could not draft on the bike we could pace each other and we spent the next 20 or so miles working at chipping away the time we lost on the first run.
We would each take turn driving the pace at the front. The lines on the road started to pass more frequently and we were really motoring! The gap started to shrink but the fun we were experiencing started to build. We were like a big ‘ol American train barreling down the tracks, chasing the glory that surely awaited us at the the finish line!
Everything changed in a flash when a car pulled out in front of my friend. At 30 miles per hour I watched all 6 foot 4 inch of John hit a car broadside, fly over the trunk, slide on the road, and under a guardrail into a culvert. With amazing instincts he even ducked as he went under the guardrail! I grabbed as much brake as I could without crashing myself and ran over to him, cycling shoes sliding on the asphalt and my mind wondering what condition I would see my friend in.
With his face bloody, road rash everywhere, and guttural groans coming from John’s mouth I made my least favorite decision. WAIT. I had to wait. It was the right thing to do. The race continued and wouldn’t stop. I had seen a terrible accident with my friend and racer. Others would continue but I opted to wait. Within minutes there was a crowd tending to John, our poor Swiss driver man, and directing the other racers around the scene.
After everyone was tended to and John gave me a pep talk to resume racing I slung my leg over my bike and reluctantly started to peddle into the foothills of the Alps. On paper, my waiting decision seemed like a disaster for a top finishing place. Everyone else was well on their way towards that finishing line and I was prancing around the roadside in spandex, pulling my friend out of a ditch and trying to communicate in German to a slightly hysterical elderly man that just hit a cyclist.
The funny thing about a WAIT decision is that it buys you time. As I found over the next 5 hours, my strength was renewed. Others had steadily burnt up all their energy. I had a break. A chance to regroup. A chance to not think about the stresses of racing. A top placing wasn’t in my thoughts as I rejoined the racers. Finishing well was. As the other racers withered away and succumbed to the relentless hills and attrition of a 130 mile race, I found myself creeping towards the pointy end of the race.
By the time the finish line rolled around I was in 8th position. My WAIT decision brought me the result I had hoped for. Waiting didn’t ruin the race for me, rather it prepared me, focused me, and created a place for me to have the maximum effect on the day. It worked better than I could ever imagine!
You have 3 decisions to make today. Start, Stop, and Wait. I am naturally a starter and finisher; not a waiter! I never embraced the wait until I saw what it could do. It was worth the wait! Things happen even when you aren’t aware. Positioning happens even when you are not part of it. Do you have a decision to make where START and STOP are not the best options? Don’t settle for second best; Embrace the WAIT and see what happens!
