Some of you may be are familiar with the story of the tortoise and the hare, but for those who don’t its about a tortoise who challenges a hare to the race. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know who is faster and more likely to win.
The hare was in the lead, but instead of finishing he took a rest and fell deeply asleep which ultimately allowed the tortoise to win. The tortoise secret was “slow and steady, finishes the race”. It’s essentially more important to focus on the goal at stake than allowing things to come in your way.
This is one of my favorite stories that I had my mother read over and over again, and this fable has been my guiding light throughout most of my challenges. It helped eliminate my internal dialogue during my first cycling race during year, my Tour de Timor experience and now with much training I am able to zone in on the challenge at hand.
Never-the-less 21 km running is no joke, and at such a slow pace, it was so easy to want to give up and walk with the crowds. But even when my knees were giving up, I brisked walk for half a km before continue to focus like the tortoise, I continued to pace myself and slowly and steadily I finished the race. In life, pain is really just temporarily, and even push down and failure is just small road blocks to glory.
