How to Stay Motivated While Training for Charity Athletic Events
ABOVE: Freelance writer Lynn Smythe. Day 1 of the 2008 MS150 bike ride. On top of Card Sound Bridge, on the way to Key Largo, Florida.
EGOMANIAC OR COUCH POTATO?
Why is there a picture of me at the top of this post? I’m not an egomaniac, just an average person. I’m married, mother of 2, a former couch potato and a soccer mom. I’m 44 years old, and even after losing 20 pounds since the beginning of the year, I am still a bit overweight. So if someone like me can train to do endurance athletic events, while helping to raise money for various charity organizations, anyone can do it!
JUST DO IT
My husband and I participate in various charity bike rides because we can. We aren’t independently wealthy, so we can’t just donate wads of cash to every charity organization we hear about. But we can commit our free time to train for these events, while asking friends, co-workers, family, and even strangers, to make a donation, in our name, to the charity. Most people are totally amazed when we tell them we are training for a 100 mile road bike ride, gosh, do we look that out of shape!?! We are actually training for our 3rd century ride with Team in Training, so we have been doing this for awhile.
We don’t have to go through chemotherapy, or radiation, or worry about passing away at a young age. Do we always want to get up at 5:30 or 6 AM to go for a bike ride, no, but we do it for those that can’t. Each season the Team in Training teams are assigned a local honored hero, someone that is currently battling a blood cancer. Our honored hero, from last years team, recently passed away, he was only 10 years old.
Man, I can never complain again, after hearing what he, and other cancer patients go through. One of the girls on our current cycle team had her thyroid removed a few months ago due to cancer. She is a survivor and signed up to do the Cocoa Beach Century ride, a 100 mile road bike ride, with no previous road biking experience. She is one of the strongest people I know, both physically, and mentally. She might not always be having a good day, but she always maintains a positive attitude.
One of the other members on our current cycle team lost his sister to leukemia in February. His daughter was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in January and she lost her battle with cancer in June, she was only 14 years old. Anger is what keeps him motivated. He will be participating in his second century ride with Team in Training on October 26th, he is 64 years old, and is one of my heroes.
YOU CAN DO IT!
Training for an endurance athletic event, whether it be a marathon, triathlon or century bike ride, is all about MAINTAINING A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE. Don’t set yourself up for failure, take all those negative thoughts, and throw them out with the garbage. We had a 63/73 year old couple that was on our cycle team last year. They did the El Tour de Tucson in Arizona – 109 MILES – elevation between 2,500 and 3,500 feet, LOTS of HILLS, on an old STEEL tandem bike. We called their heavy bike the tank. They weren’t the fastest ones out of the gate, but once they got up to speed, watch out, they FLEW by everyone, especially going down hills. They put some of us young riders to shame.
AGE IS JUST A NUMBER
You are never too old, or too overweight, or out of shape to consider signing up for a charity athletic event. Start off slow, look into charity walking events in your area, and work your way up to a 5K. Or if biking is more appealing to you, look into family fun rides. These are short, usually under 20 mile bike rides, which take place along with longer metric century and century bike rides.
BIKERS OR RUNNERS?
In addition to all the cycling events we do, my husband and I have recently signed up to do the Disney Marathon. We are doing the marathon, on January 11th, with the Leukemia Society’s Team in Training program. Before I signed up for the marathon, I hadn’t been running in almost 18 years, while my husband never was a runner. Our birthday’s are in October and November, on the day of the marathon I will be 45 and my husband will be 52 years old. We’re just a couple of kids compared to some of the people we know that are still participating in charity athletic events.
YOU CAN DO IT!!!!
Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Bike Diva
Great post Lynn! Doing these events as a team with your husband must be motivating too. When you have a training partner it really helps… when you are down he can lift you up and vice versa.