It's not over till you hit the wall

Here are some phunny ones phrom the Phelps Philes..........

SportsCenter ad #1

SportsCenter Ad #2

Michael and his dog Herman

I don't know about you...... but these games came at the exact time I needed them to come. I just went through something pretty awful.... not my DNF..... something I will write about later..... and I don't know about you but things like this inspire me.

It inspired me to watch the women's marathon and to watch a 38 year old mother from Romania take a chance on herself.
It inspired me to watch a man they have nicknamed "The lightning bolt" become the fastest man in the world. And to watch a little less known young man in his first Olympics hold himself with poise and class as he ran himself to the bronze medal in that same race.

It inspired me to watch a woman who is 41 years old on a relay with girls who could be her daughters, swim to a third silver medal.


It makes me wonder if there are better swimmers out there. Maybe there is a better swimmer than Michael Phelps out there. Maybe a guy who was told he couldn't..... and listened. Who now sits behind a desk and looks at a computer all day long and wonders what if he just believed in himself.


There are so many stories and they don't all need to involve your dog having cancer or you enduring the most catastrophic thing on earth.

They all have one thing in common. Trusting what is inside of you.

Sport is a safe field to do that in. No one gets killed. Nothing really horrible happens if you don't win, and simply nothing really special happens when you do win. Yeah you get the medal, maybe some endorsements, you are a national hero....... but it doesn't change the world. It doesn't change who you are inside.


Sport is safe.

If you can do it on the field you can do it off the field.

Someone recently mentioned to me that doing an Ironman is like putting a card in your back pocket. When you come up against something hard in life, whatever it may be, you can always reach back and feel that card. The one that says you can.

Whatever Michael Phelps comes up against, he can reach into his back pocket and feel the eight gold medals that people told him would be impossible to achieve.

Maybe you have been told you are too big, too small, too tall, too short..... too fat.... too thin..... you just don't have enough talent.

No one can tell you that you don't have enough heart. No one can tell you that you don't have enough guts. The only one who decides that is you.

I am dreaming big. I set myself a goal and I am going to achieve it. Because of the many times I have been told I can't. Even by myself. Just like Phelps..... I will paste those words in the back of my locker. I will use that as fuel and I will build something even bigger.

Because I have heart, I have guts and I have the desire to achieve the goal I have set. I have the belief in myself that I can overcome, that I can make that reach and should it come down to a photo finish...... in whatever arena I am in..... I will take that final stroke and I will not give up.


Because it is never really over until you hit the wall.