Determination

Today my friend joined the Shape run - 10 km. We were just smsing each other about the athlete spirit, eg determination.

Determination --- is something I need to inculcate more. The wavering seems extremely strong towards the end of the races or journeys. I find it weird too, why is it that I seem more pre-disposed to give up towards the end of the race more than anywhere else.

In a not too long ago 120 km night cycling event that I took part in, my stamina was not up to standard. But I was motivated by some of my friends who may have practice less than me but had much more tenacity to hang on. Towards the last 10-20 kim, so tired and not knowing when I would reach the finishing line, to distract myself, I listened to my MP3 and kept telling myself "Wow this is a great workout, I can do it". This seemed to work well until I reached the familiar finishing route (about 500 m to 1 km to go). Then I was torned between the 2 voices in my mind, one telling me that it was ok, i had nearly reached the finishing line and could give up now and the other voice telling me that I had come so far and must not give up now. It was certainly the most trying part of the whole journey. Actually if I had not seen the finishing route, I might even have been able to hang on a few more kms having found my energy back but upon seeing the finishing route, it seemed that I suddenly lost it all. Lucky for me that time, my latter voice won over and I reached the finishing without giving up.

Later on, I asked my friends what were in their thoughts towards the end of the race, whether they were facing the same dilemna as me. For them upon reaching to the finishing route, they were actually more geared and cycled even faster to finish as the finishing route was a trememdous motivation for them.

I guess it may be this kind of mental thoughts that separates the Greats from the Masses or the Winners from the Losers. Some ingredients of this kind of thoughts may even contributed to the phenomenon where more climbers tend to die during their descent of great mountains than during the ascent.