Monday, June 7, 2010


I don't know why but when I return home from long races I sometimes tend to feel blue. When I drove into Texas a few hours ago, I felt the heat change against the windows and the Texas sun set in. I started to unload the car and felt all woozy and dizzy inside. I felt worried, worried in so many ways... Worried about the bad dreams I had last night, worried that maybe I said or did something wrong, worried that I could have offended others. Worried about so many things all at the same time. Maybe I'm just tired or overstimulated because I have nothing to feel sad about today. I set my goals and I completed them, I'm home. Why is that not enough? The aftermath of weeks of hard racing enumerate themselves through ecstatic highs, elation of good results, interviews and celebrations. Why is it met with the contrasting lows? is it the natural balance of life? All of it makes for ups-and-downs that tend to follow a long batch of intense efforts as we strive so passionately for achievement. Maybe as highly competitive individuals we push ourselves so gruelingly to surpass our boundries that it depletes our stores of serotonin; the very shred of our comfort. It does stand to reason. After a great bunch of races, why on earth would anyone feel depressed?
Maybe the sum total of racing is greater than its parts on the course, or where ever it is that achievement is sought. It goes on and on after the finish. The journey doesn't end there, it's only just begun.

1 comment:

  1. I think what you describe is why some older elite athletes just can't hang it up. They need those highs in their life and fear what life will be like without them

    ReplyDelete