Finding Joy By Letting Go of Expectations
I recently took a trip to the big island to participate in the Hawaii 70.3 triathlon.
As some of you know, the way I like to do triathlons these days is as part of a relay. Though I’ve done plenty of tri’s as an individual, I’ve really taken to the team concept – so much less stress & SO much more fun!
For Hawaii I was the swimmer & boy, was I looking forward to it! I planned out my training so I’d be in peak race shape. I started focusing on the race time I wanted to get. And then, at about 6 weeks out, my shoulder started hurting. Over the coming weeks it got worse & worse until finally, 3 weeks from race date, I headed into Physical Therapy. The PT treatments were helpful, but the pain was stubborn & I began to question whether I’d be able to swim at all.
Two days before the race I arrived in Kona with a shoulder that hurt in all ranges of motion & kinesio tape holding it together. My teammate & I started troubleshooting. Maybe we could switch our entry to individual & he could race the whole thing? Maybe I could swim/drill it?
All previous expectations of setting a PR (personal record) time were gone…now I was into Plan C, Plan D, Plan E!
Ultimately I decided to do a combination of backstroke (for some reason that stroke felt better), 1-arm butterfly, 1-arm freestyle & kicking. Crazy…but it could work…I’m comfortable doing all those skills…why not just do them in open water in a race?!
Race morning came & we headed to the swim start. As I put on my swim cap & goggles, I looked out over this beautiful ocean & thought to myself, “I am the luckiest person alive. Look at what I get to do 1-arm freestyle in!” Suffice to say I had a great swim! In fact, I’ve had 2 amazing swims in my life & this was one of them. I started conservatively with some drills. As my shoulder warmed up it actually felt pretty good & I was able to swim…with some backstroke included to give it a break.
Was it my best swim result? No.
But without those outcome-oriented expectations in my head, I was able to focus more clearly on this unbelievable venue – the warmth of the water, the scuba divers underneath me, the fish darting in all directions, the sand on the bottom drifting in the waves, water so clear I could see every swimmer’s form around me. Complete & pure joy!