What I learned from finishing my first Ironman

In January of 2019, I sat down with my coach, Jim Lubinski of Tower 26 to plan my first Ironman season. Would be a total of 6 races: 3 olympic distances, 2 - 70.3’s with the capstone being Full Ironman Mont Tremblant. A 3.8km swim, 180km bike & 42.2km run. In my reflection over the past few days I was able to synthesize a few things I have learned over this past year in preparing & completing my first season as an Ironman #Triathlete

1. Stress is an amazing tool:

Often in our society we have demonized the function of stress, leading in my opinion to a very lazy culture. As much as we complain on Instagram things are so simple for us and we fear ever working TO hard, but the truth is, in order to live a fulfilled life, you must embrace stress. In training or building a business stress is part of the day to day, in the present moment that stress maybe painful and your body & mind will be telling you to stop and quit, but you need to understand the other side of that pain is monumental growth. Embrace stress and flourish.

2: You can override your central governor:

Developed by Dr. Timothy Noakes’s, his hypothesis suggests that the brain acts as a central governor when racing, limiting our ability to push beyond perceived fatigue to ensure self-preservation.

In short, the central governor theory is based around the premise that the brain will override your physical ability to run and “shut the body down” before you’re able to do serious or permanent damage to yourself. 18 months ago I was capping at around 25% body fat, big boy Justin. My capacity for what I was capable of physically was severely limited, but over time I have increased the capacity of that govern by training my brain to push past what I think if possible. At mile 18 of the marathon by body was completely depleted, yet with focus I was able to muster the strength to finish. 12 hours and 19 minutes. I can truly say with confidence, I CAN DO ANYTHING!

3. You are not a thing, you are a process:

Inspired by the mediation course Waking Up by Sam Harris - he shares about the juxtaposition that our social self is a reflection of how people persevere us and in the case of this experience, how I did this race. But the point of this race wasn’t the 12 hours on course in Canada, it was the entire training regime to get to this point. The PROCESS. To be precise since January 2019 I have been in my training - Swimming 270,830 yards, biking 1,915 miles and running 515 miles - the process WAS the experience and I was that process. I was the manifestation of that process and have seen such dramatic impacts in all aspects of my life.

4. In the words of Kendrick Lamar - Be Humble.

I don’t care how much money you have, your job title or how woke you think you are - a physical endurance race will humble any human to the point of breaking. You dissolve your ego to a place of exhaustion with nothing left but love and a smile for the blessing to be able to do what you just did. When you have nothing left in the tank, and you see people passing you with ease on the course you are humbled. Humbled because of sprit, not just strength.

In conclusion, with all my heart I think everyone should try to embark on some level of an endurance activity, some people it might be a 5k run or some an Ironman, but the premise is to have something you are working towards. A physically event to look forward to. We are creatures built to move, evolved to go long distances to hunt & gather. An endurance race It helps you become a process that will fulfill a new stretch of your imagination.