Not Giving Up
Ability and achievement are disjointed entities, a frustrating reality. It is difficult to accept that we often can attain more than we have yet to seize. For me, this is manifest in Kalamazoo’s local Criterium race. A small and silly example, but a relevant one in my own experience. This race venue is composed of wide roads and gentle turns, making it an easy race tactically. For years, I have watched the category 1/2 race and envisioned the different ways I would win it someday. Last year I positioned poorly in the final corner and fell out of contention during the sprint finish. This year I did everything right, and just had very awful, terrible, no good, rotten, inexplicably foul, and annoyingly inconvenient luck. It started with a flat tire on the back side of the course 30 minutes into the race. I ran straight back across the 1.1 mile loop to the start finish line to find myself out of breath and in a neutral service tent without any spare wheels. Bummer. ...