What Is the Point? What Do You Have to Prove?

So this happened today.

6.5 months after breaking my pelvis, 4 ribs and puncturing a lung in the last race I did I pinned a number on and rolled off the line with 60 other racers for 120 km P1-2 road race on the Olympic Peninsula.

I didn’t win. I didn’t place. And I didn’t even show. But after months of rehab I got back out there and raced. I even followed a few moves and at the end of it all I finished right in the middle of the bunch in 27th. And I’m ok with that.

I’ll be honest, I almost didn’t go. After racing for 34 years and after the major injuries and surgeries I’ve had in the past 18 months the motivation to get out there and keep doing it is harder and harder to muster. Especially with a forecast like today: 50s and a high probability of rain – which it did. Plus, what do I have to prove? But I got my ass in gear, I loaded the car, I drove the 1.25 hours out, I registered, I kitted up and I raced. And I’m glad I did. Because after all, what’s the point of all the training and hard work if you don’t go out and test yourself once in a while? And sometimes you just need to prove something to yourself.