Personal Achievement

Ever since starting this blog my aim has been to keep a personal diary so that people who are interested can check out the details of my journey to Ironman France. It has been an amazing journey so far and if I look back to where I was during most of my 20's, overweight and binge drinking it is amazing to think how far I have come. Training for an Ironman to me has always been about setting myself a goal and seeing if I can achieve it. I recently read this quote and thought it was very appropriate,

True achievement cannot be found in finishing times, bank balances, honours or awards for those measures are unrelated to your potential. True achievement exists purely in your mind and can only be secured when you, and only you, know for sure that you could not possibly have prepared for or executed whatever it is that you did any better.

This week me and the girls headed to London to watch Camilla run in the London BUPA 10km race. Camilla has been training hard for this event since she decided to take up running at the end of last year. And having never run 10km in her life the thought of completing this race was, for her, somewhat daunting. However it was great to see her not only achieve her goals but smash her target time into pieces! On the way up in the car her goal went from, "I'll just be happy to finish" to "I would like to go under an hour", to finally, "If I break 55mins I will be thrilled". Crossing the line in 54min and 3 seconds with a beaming grin it was clear that the past few months of training had been worth it.

I would encourage everyone to set yourself the target of achieving something amazing. It doesn't have to be an Ironman but if you do one thing in life, do something amazing. Hitting your targets or even exceeding them will give you a bigger sense of satisfaction than you can possibly imagine.

Not all of us will experience the top end of competitive sport, in fact probably none of us will, but by setting your own goals everyone can experience their own personal achievement. It isn't always possible to set a PB and sometimes you might not even finish a race, but this will only make you want to push harder next time and try to do better. The goal is simple... aim to be the best you can be.

As I write this blog I am only 20 days away from the start line of Ironman France and I know that over the past few months all this training has put me in a position where I have the opportunity to be the best I can be. I won't be first across the line, but if I can make it around the course in one piece then I will have achieved something that a few years ago I never thought was possible.