The Honesty Box
Two blogs in as many days, I know what your thinking ,Joe must be really bored, well I'm not!
I don't really know how this blog will go down. It's short and sweet and just my feelings on things now that all the dust has settled. Take a second to look at Lucy's face on the finish line of UK on Sunday, how many of you felt like that or want to feel like that?? Leading up to the event I had numerous conversations with Ian about IMUK being my last one and moving to 70.3 races. As I'm sure a lot of you have found out, over the last 10 months, this really isn't easy. I was worried about letting friends down, sponsors down, family down and myself down, basically all the people who have invested time, money and more importantly love into my journey. But here is the thing. Think about the big picture. How amazing is this sport for us all. We have the greatest community on the planet I'm sure, we are lucky enough to race with professional athletes, we make friends for fun, we are fitter than we ever thought possible, and we are in general the friendliest bunch of athletes about, encouraging each other in racing and training and during tough times is second nature to us. Something I experienced myself recently with Mark and Caroline Livesy helping me with supplement advice during my illness, simply because they saw another triathlete in trouble and wanted to help, how many sports does that happen in. We race in some spectacular places seeing sights some people can only dream of, and our families share them with us. Sometimes things don't always go according to plan yet we reflect and strive to improve, now that is special. Yes, there are the crappy times, dark, wet, long bike rides, cold runs and countless laps in the pool, but guess what, you're still there week after week getting it done and that takes a special kind of person!! When we are not racing we are on a course cheering people on for up to 17 hours as I'm sure a lot of you saw on Sunday. I have friends who have traveled hundreds upon hundreds of miles to watch me race xx.
I love this sport and everything it has done for me, my family and my friends. My girls have been to places we would have never been without triathlon, as I type this Joey is at the side of me looking for digs on the Big Island. Recently has seen some amazing performances from guys and girls who are totally down to earth amazing athletes, people to really look up to and who have the time of day for all comers. The Cullens in Austria a few weeks ago Tony posting an 8:57 and Dave a 9:30, Brian Fogarty on Sunday 9:11 amazing, then the pro's Joe Skipper, the first British athlete to break 8 hours at Roth incredible and good old Lucy Gossage owned IMUK to smash the female race yet again. So If you didn't have the greatest of days on Sunday and were in the same mind as I was prior to the race, take another look at the photo, do you really want to walk away from such an amazing community??
I was talking to Marc Laithwaite prior to the awards ceremony on Monday and even though the legs were shot at and we were both suffering somewhat, there was an enthusiasm within us both that was undeniable. So am I going to leave all this behind, Hell no, I'm looking for races for next year and planning an assault on the Big Island, lets see if I can go sub 10 this time. If I don't, It won't be due to the lack of effort .
Take it easy
Joe D
