I'm Only Getting Started (Turning 40)

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Apologies

I apologize for getting this piece out late. It has been a busy week. Also, I thought that that this piece needed an extraordinary amount of thought. I hope that you can also agree with my delay’s justifiication.

Looking Back

Just over a week ago, I turned 40. I’ll put it out there: no, I didn’t have a mid-life crisis. I think that I didn’t have one because I regularly review my life to see. where I need to implement some change. I have felt that mid-life crises, often, come when individuals finally take a look back only to realize that the life that they are living doesn’t seem theirs. Perhaps other people made decisions for them, only for them to find out that these choices no longer or never fit them. Or some individuals realize how much time has passed and wonder if they are where they really want to be. This self-examination brought on by turning 40, for these people, can expose horribly weighty regrets.

Regrets

Do I have regrets? To quote, Frank Sinatra’s hit “My Way,”

“Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do”

Sure, there are things that I wish that I did differently or didn’t do at all. However, with hindsight being 20/20, I can safely say that these decisions and actions made me into who I am today. Are there things that I wish didn’t take me so long to do? Sure, but notwithstanding, the important thing is that I’m finally doing them. Better late than never, I suppose. I feel that this is what counts.

2019 Free Press 5K

This past weekend, I was able to complete this year’s Free Press 5K. Just six years ago, I completed my first Free Press 5K, after completing a couch-to-5K program. The amazing thing is that this time I had practically no training, unless you count taking the stairs at work at every possible opportunity and hitting my 250 steps/hr. This time around, I’m was around 20-30 lbs lighter than the first time, so I’m pretty sure that this helped.

Last time, I started running too fast, too early towards the end and gassed out. As a result, I walked across the finish line. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t repeat that same mistake and I didn’t. To make sure that this didn’t happen, there were a few things that I did.

First of all, I channeled the spirit of David Goggins. For real. In his book, Can’t Hurt Me, Goggins wrote about his belief that, when we think that we’re giving “100%,” we’re probably giving closer to 40%. For me, there were moments, during the race, when I felt myself slowing down prematurely and had to remind myself, “40%” and picked up my speed.

Also, I set landmarks to help with my pacing. Sometimes, it was as simple as running up to a traffic light, slowing down, then speeding back up at the next one. Or I would see someone, slow down to conserve my energy, then get around them. Each of these things helped with helped to incrementally increase my performance.

Last and certainly not least was my custom Amazon Music playlist. The songs were curated, so that it could help me connect with the necessary mindset to dig deep to focus on the goal of conserving my energy to maintain a good pace and not gas out at the end. There were times, when I was planning on slowing down, but a particular song would come on and I wouldn’t let myself rest yet. When I heard “Hearts on Fire,” I envisioned the training sequence in Rocky IV, where Rocky was in the barn lifting rocks, chopping wood, pressing the carriage up and climbing the mountain. When I heard AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell (Live at The River Plate Stadium),” I could hear the vibrant electricity in the soccer stadium audience (I’ve seen the video on YouTube) and I dug deep to pull from that 60% that I had in me.

The above factors contributed to these results:

  • Average pace: 12:59 mile

  • Total completion time: 42:00 minutes

  • Mile 0-1 pace: 11:19 mile

  • Mile 1-2 pace: 13:35 mile

  • Mile 2-3 pace: 14:08 mile

  • Mile 3-end: 12:46 mile

Conclusion

I wouldn’t say that I came to any groundbreaking realizations but rather reinforcements of what I already think and do: hence, no mid-life crisis. Also, completing the 5K at a better pace than my first attempt, showed me the power of intense mental focus and the untapped potential of sheer willpower. While I did have a plan that I successfully completed, I credit my willpower in the style of David Goggins as the key.

I might be 40 (as I was reminded in my 5K age category), but I feel like I’ve only started living my life. I look forward to see what I will do and where I will go. In an Inc. article “14 Inspiring People Who Found Crazy Success Later In Life,” I came across a few well known people, who found success later in life:

  • Col. Harland Sanders: after experiencing multiple professional and career “failures,” he acquired his first chicken franchise in 1952 at the age of 62. By 1962, at the age of 73, he sold his corporation for $2 million, but stayed on as a salaried spokesman.

  • Rodney Dangerfield: the comedy legend received his big break, at 46, on The Ed Sullivan Show.

  • Samuel L. Jackson: was 46, when he took his career making role as assassin, Jules Winnfield, in Pulp Fiction.

  • Ray Kroc: was 50, when he bought his first McDonald’s in 1961.

While the above examples aren’t the only definitions of success, I feel that some of my best work is ahead of me. I’m still a little sore from the 5K, but I’m blessed to still be moving. While I’m still working on my plan for what I want to do, each day I do some reflection, as well as review and edit my goals. Last and certainly not least, I dug deep on race day and know that I can do that again, whenever I can direct my will to do so.

I’M ONLY GETTING STARTED.