What You Can Learn From A Finish Line

Riding an organized race isn’t normally part of the RICH’S RIDE mission.

When we committed to El Tour de Tucson I didn’t think about competition. As I sat at the start line I realized many of the folks around me wanted to complete the ride as fast as possible. That notion hadn’t occurred to me.

The winner of the race completed 104 miles in 4 hours 7 minutes. I’ll let you do the math. And while I wasn’t concerned about my time, I suddenly looked around and wondered how my speed would compare to these folks.

I knew I couldn’t keep up with most of the handcyclists. They were young, athletic, and serious. I was right—when the race started, they disappeared.

Same for many of the serious-looking able-bodied riders. The course began with about four miles of mostly uphill terrain, and I can’t climb with even average riders.

Then I asked What are you doing? I know all about the dangers of comparing, and here I was doing exactly that. My ride was about to become all about how I did compared to a bunch of people I didn’t even know.

I’m glad I had that moment of clarity before we started. When the starter yelled GO it was okay that most folks took off faster than me. I knew that even the ladies with the plastic flowers in their helmets would get to the top of the first hill before I did. I also knew I’d pass many of them going downhill, and none of that mattered.

But I learned something else. There’s a positive aspect to the competition. While I didn’t care about “beating” the other riders, the presence of a finish line and a clock pushed me to ride a bit harder, keep riding hard up hills when I might have slowed down, and crank hard down hills when it would have been easier to coast and catch my breath.

I actually finished quite a bit faster than I imagined I would, faster than I would have done a solitary workout. I didn’t break any records, but that’s not the point. Because of the clock, I exceeded what I thought possible. And now, whenever I ride, I’ll remember that result. When I’m tempted to ease up a bit and settle for a slower ride, I’ll know I’m settling for less.

Once you do it, you know you can do it. You’ve raised the bar.

And I think that applies to more than bike rides.

Just for the record, I out-sprinted the ladies with plastic flowers in their helmets at the finish line.

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