Its all in my head...

Something has stuck in my head since I watched the American Gladiator tryouts last month. Am I an athlete? or perhaps more apt, Am I athletic?

I have an appropriate athletic build, although three years later I still look more like a weight lifter than endurance freak. I don't however have the fundamental background in athletics. Spending most of my life in the gym really isn't athletic, general exercise is a lifestyle trait that everyone should have. Not everyone is an athlete though. I haven't played football or baseball or team sports since my car accident twenty years ago, so there goes the team component. I am not fast or have great balance or superior coordination. I am mediocre riding up hills and have one speed in the water. Generally speaking my form is more laughable than laudable.

But I think to myself, c'mon, I've done Ironman's and marathons and century rides and can swim miles at a time. I've done bodybuilding competitions and powerlifting contests. I spent a lot of time on obstacle courses and confidence courses in the military not to mention all the other running, hiking and rock climbing I have done. Thats athletic isn't it?

I think what might make me an athlete more than any other discernible trait is my determination. I have always said that I am more like a tank than anything else. Just point me in the right direction and I will eventually get there. Yeah I might throw a few treads and bounce off a few trees and show up a lot more worse than the wear. But I am determined to finish something. That might be more important that talent or speed or strength.

I have met a lot of people full of speed or skill or some other tremendous talent and yet they take it all for granted and blow up their life, wasting their gift. I guess because every normal step today is more credit than any doctor gave me when I was in recovery, I look at what I can do as a blessing.

So I may not be able to dodge the dodgeballs or dunk or go 3 for 5 against a good pitcher or throw a tight spiral or do 25 pull ups, or run a 4.8 forty or swim a 1:25 hundred or average a seven minute mile or hit a golf ball straight or bowl over 200 or do a back flip off a diving board. But how many people can say they have finished a marathon or Ironman or carried a 110 pound rucksack for miles and days on end?

So I guess that I while I don't feel athletic when I see athletes, I certainly am one. Its just that instead of having the proto-typical athletes body I have the athletes mindset.

Charlie Mike (Continue the Mission)