Why should I race

We have the opportunity the opportunity to speak with a variety of people who have an interest in fitness.  Folks come at it from all different angles, and for all different reasons.  Whether someone come to us for coaching, group or personal training, we almost always start with the questions, What or why?

This allows for our initial discussions about goals.  Too often a response begins with a bathing suit or a little black dress.  We will encourage our athletes to sign up for a race, a charity walk, or a bicycle tour.  Join an adult team in soccer, softball, or swimming.  This is done not as part of a diabolical scheme to convert the masses, but to all for some creativity in our approach and build in a target to keep us fixed upon.

In reading a book on Sports Ethics, an Anthology, author Jan Boxill, described the distinction between exercise and sports.  She opines that as “exercise” often stifles creativity, the become repetitive and simple, and thus much like work, and we often grow disenchanted with them and stop.  Without the game attached, “the exercises become merely sets, tedious, repetitious and meaningless”.  Boxill 2.

Boxill discusses the dissenter who states, they does the exercise for “health, relaxation and achievement”, by showing that a person who wants to be refreshed can only do so once they have forgotten about the goal of refreshment, and just play.  Boxill 3.

Think about  your childhood, did you ever leave on your bike with the idea or mind set that you did it for health and relaxation?  Did your pick up basketball game in the school yard ever start with the idea health?  Most likely not.  These were competitions we were drawn to, to test and challenge ourselves, and by the participation we received the product of health, relaxation and achievement.  I believe this is what Boxill, so wonderfully teaches us.

By moving back to youth in our mind we have the opportunity to express our self creatively through sport, and thus receive all the wonderful by-products of that, in a way that just knocking off set cannot do.  While I am not opposed to a little black dress, or skinny jeans in our minds, that will only allow us to achieve a certain level in our athletic development.  By participation we will allow you to have exercise not as a means to an end, but as a component of a larger goal.  The preparation for a 5K race, the  start of softball season, or a charity bike ride, will allow you to receive the by -products of your effort to prepare for those without the mundane idea of exercise.  We encourage all of our athletes to participate and compete because it brings out something deeper within us.

Are you motivated by an event or specific goal?

Race hard and play!