Endure to Explore
It’s hour three on my bike saddle, and my bum feels more uncomfortable than a 30-year old on a first date with Leonardo DiCaprio.
I’m halfway done with my sunrise swim in Lake Sammamish. The fog makes the buoys invisible, and for some reason my mind keeps playing certain moments of Season 4 of Stranger Things, which I would rather not think about at that time.
I’m running in 100+ degree weather. Sun rays feel like needles, and I run to seek relief in the shadows of the cypress trees canopies as I circle Ladybird Lake in Austin.
These are all scenes from my 70.3 Ironman training this summer. These were particular moments where I asked myself: “Why on earth am I doing this?”
This wasn’t my first Ironman or triathlon. I’ve been training for these things for about 4 years now. This isn’t new to me. Yet, in the dearth of joy during these training sessions, this question emerges—seemingly unresolved.
Why on earth am I doing a 70.3 Ironman? Why did 1,214 other souls think it was a good idea to do one as well? Why do people run ultra-marathons (50K-100K!)? Why did this guy do 50 FULL Ironman events, in 50 states, for 50 consecutive days?
It’s because endurance is an act of exploration. It is a manifestation of our nature as explorers and wanderers. The human race, for better or worse, has been characterized by charting uncharted territory, making the unknown known, and shining a light where no light had shone before.
We can’t help but to explore the limits of our universe. And that includes our own inner vastness.
Endurance activities are just one of the expressions of our vanguarding nature. Humans regularly explore our physical/mental limits through extreme sports, art, and mindfulness to note some examples.
Could I be rationalizing my masochism in the most elegant way possible? Perhaps. But I do think, when you look at all the ways humans push our limits every day, that there is a greater force, an instinct that drives this behavior. And it is through these collective efforts to push our limits that we push society forward and create new benchmarks for physical/mental feats.
One of the most famous examples of pushing physical limits in the 20th century was Roger Banister breaking the 4 minute mile barrier. It could be that some chick or dude in Mesopotamia actually ran faster, so technically it could have happened already, but you get the point. What is most striking to me is that after Roger Banister broke the 4 minute mile, 3 people ran a sub 4 minute mile in the same race less than a year after the original feat.
What happened before? I’m no anthropologist, but I think the simplest explanation is that once the limit was broken, it set a new mark. There is a new frontier to explore. I truly believe that in my lifetime, we will see someone run a 3:30 mile (current record is 3:43).
This is the beauty of testing your own physical and mental limits. Exceeding them creates a new frontier. And the journey completed emboldens us to pursue new limits. To use those mornings where we dragged ourselves out of bed as examples that we can do hard things, and that hard things can lead to growth. Or to think about our first finish line, and recall the relief, the payoff, of months of work materialized into hugs from your loved ones and a shiny new medal.
Exploring our limits through endurance is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves. It is one of the best ways to honor our nature; in the same way creating more and consuming less is one of the biggest acts of self-love that we can perform.
Training for a couple Ironman events has taught me the following: Love the process, suffering brings growth, showing up despite not being fully there is better than not showing up at all, public goals drive accountability, reframing the hard days as stepping stones to the delayed gratification we seek is one of the most powerful things we can learn.
These all sound like those corny signs from Home Goods, but they are true.
I know that it’s a certain position of privilege to choose the type of suffering you want to endure. Millions of people on our planet don't have nearly the same agency. Yet, if you are in a position where you can choose to do hard things…do them! Push your limits. It will never look like a straight line, you will fail and have off days or weeks. The path may be rocky, but the resolve must never waiver. I’m sounding like Rocky Balboa so I’ll stop now.
Explore the limits of your vast universe.
