Minutes before I had just yelled to the empty forrest “DOES THIS EVER F***ING END!!!”
My shoes were filled with water.
My glasses were fogged up and impossible to see through.
It had been pouring raining almost the whole race.
I was all by myself.
And it didn’t seem like either was going to end soon…. the rain, or the uphill that I had been pedaling up for over an hour.
I was only about 12 miles into a 50 mile mountain bike race, but everyone was so spread out, I was all by myself, and had been for quite some time. My legs were on fire and the uphill seemed to go on forever. I was wet, defeated and on the verge of quitting.
The justifications for pulling the plug were becoming soo strong, I was beginning to believe it was ok to give in and call it a day.
After all, I had just signed up for fun..it wasn’t THAT serious, right?
No one else was doing the race that I knew, so no one would even know that I quit.. No big deal, right?
I wanted to quit. Really bad…
But yet, I finished the race… in 8 hours and 36 Minutes.
How?
A few short minutes after I finished yelling expletives at the forest, 2 guys biked up from behind me and passed me while I was stopped.
Simply seeing other people and knowing that they too had to be going through the same thing gave me hope. I hopped back on my bike, found some strength I didn’t know I had and caught up to them.
One of the guys quickly started talking to me,…and it made all the difference in the world. Another person was in it with me.
We ended up biking together for the rest of the race (about 6-7 more hours).
I was literally about to quit, then another person, a stranger came along, and that gave me all the reason to keep going. It wasn’t even that he was encouraging or anything, it was just the fact that there was another person there, with me.
Also there “with me” even though not actually there were my wife and daughter. Although they would’ve supported me either way, I didn’t want to let them down. I know Charley wouldn’t have understood what happened, but it was the principle of showing my daughter I can do hard things.
Maybe you haven’t been in this exact scenario, but I can bet you’ve been in a similar one that I’m also familiar with: The Gym.
Have you ever tried going to the gym to get in shape, but were doing it all alone? Then after some amount of time the justifications for stopping overtook the will to keep going?
This happens to people all the time, especially at big box gyms where everyone is essentially by themselves even though they’re in the same building.
There is such great power in having someone there with you on your journey. That someone may be a coach, it may be a friend who’s going with you, or it may just be another person who comes to the gym at the same time regularly and works out next to you and shares a bit of conversation.
Oftentimes the missing piece to sticking to a workout routine has nothing to do with the exercises themselves, or the instagram quotes you saved on your phone. It has everything to do with other people.
You’ve gotta find the person who’s going to ride in the rain and mud, uphill for 6 hours with you.
At my gym Rampage, that person is your coach, but it very well may be the other people you’re working out with too.
If you think you’ve tried everything and nothing works, have you tried getting a coach, or a dedicated workout partner?
That other person in your corner will make all the difference in the world.
Korey “I didn’t quit” Akers