It seems that when you think "Oh, no my race preparation has been awful" as though you are suffering the biggest sporting setback of all time. I have been there and ridden the 'tough race' bronco, but then you look at some stories from the London 2012 Olympics and realise "okay so my injury issues are pretty small really!". People (athletes - but lets not forget they are normal people too) training themselves silly for four years or more in huge blocks / cycles for just 1 day in roughly 1461 (depending on when the Games is scheduled within a given year).
One such athlete who as the sporting cliché goes 'turned herself inside out' in an effort to achieve was Helen Jenkins (a triathlete, and the 2008 & 2011 triathlon World champion) and I have just finished reading a blog post she released about her Olympic trials and tribulations. Helen is from Wales the 'small' country I reside in which as part of the United Kingdom which had high and specific hopes for all of its cohort of Olympians very much including Helen. The pressures that she must have felt living under the home tag of 'gold medal hopeful' must have been incredibly intense, that she put herself through what she did a testament to immense inner strength. Good on her for pushing through, doing well, and then describing so concisely how she got there (she finished fifth) - there are many definitions of 'heroic' and the vast majority of them don't require gold coloured medals (or any medal) and evidence.
For my small part I will be endeavouring to bite my tongue (lock my keyboard away) the next time I set out to an event with 'less than perfect' training. Everyone at every level of moving be it slow to fast, weak to strong, novice to elite needs a little perspective now and then - mine was adjusted mightily by an honest simple account of sporting struggle.
Helen's post can be found at http://www.helenjenkins.co.uk/index.php/blog/8-blog/25-olympics
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