Welcome back, fellow Aggressives! If you haven't noticed yet we have started a new year and it's called 2012, aka the 2012th year of the Anno Domini, aka the Chinese Year of the Dragon, aka a Leap Year... aka the Year of Aggressiveness! As with every new year we sit down and reflect upon the past. We look back at the mistakes we made, which made us smarter; the triumphs we had, which made us more humble; the experiences we created, which made our lives more grand; and the friends with whom we shared these times, who never let us revel in our successes but are quick to let us drown in our embarrassments. This is why we hate our friends..
Looking to a new year of racing, I, like the rest of us, need to focus on how we will work toward more success in our endeavours, no matter how small they may be; how we will grow our determination and focus without losing ourselves to our growing obsession; how we will tip the scales in our favor through regimented training sessions, both physical and mental; and, of course, how we will crush our competitive friends for making us relive that one time in 2011 during that one race when they happened to cross the finish line before you and then counted every other person who crossed before you, resulting in a complete tally of how many people suck less than you do. This is also why we hate our friends.
Hating our friends aside, I know I have work to do if I plan on making 2012 a better year of racing than 2011. If you have been racing all along, or started last year, then you probably have made many aggressive resolutions to meet your 2012 aggressive goals in order to be Aging Aggressively, instead of just aging frumpily... which I don't think is a word, but making stuff up has never stopped me from saying it. Frumpy aging is not a goal.
If you haven't started racing yet but want to, where are you? Why are you not out there with the rest of us Aggressives? I've asked and, putting irrelevant comments such as "I hate spandex," "Binge drinking is a race," and "I don't talk to strange men, please leave me alone or I'll call the cops" aside, the most common fear I hear from potential new racers is they "won't make it to the finish line," to which I say, "Don't worry about the finish line."
If there is one piece of advice I can give, that's it. Don't worry about it. I've done 5K's, 10Ks, and half marathons. I've pushed through the Spartan Sprint, the Boston Ruckus, and Tough Mudder. I cycled Mount Washington, twice. I started triathlons. I never win any of these races. I don't place. Hell, often enough, I don't come even close; but I never worry about that finish line. No matter how quickly or slowly I perform in the race, that finish line will still be waiting for me.
As it will for you. Everytime. Without exception. Waiting, just for you to cross it; and, barring debilitating injury, natural disasters of Michael Bay-like proportion, or the coming Rapture, you will.
The hard part is getting to the starting line. That will require commitment. That will require courage. That will require removing the word can't from your life because can't really means won't. That will require you to stop saying, "I'll do it when I can" to "I'll do it because I can." Yes, it will get you out of your comfort zone, but you are not really comfortable anymore, are you? If you were you wouldn't be thinking about that finish line.
So, where are you? Hopefully meeting us, your friends, at the starting line. We are waiting for you to join in on the fun. We are waiting for you to share in the stories created from each race. We are waiting for you to hate us because we made you realize that all your "I can'ts" can be erased by one "I will." We, the starting line, and the finish line, are waiting for you... so what are you waiting for?
