Some athlete stories

Have you ever heard of:
John Landy

How about:
Roger Bannister

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man in history to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Within 2 months, John Landy eclipsed the record by 1.4 seconds. On August 7 1954, the two met together for a historic race. As they moved into the last lap, Landy held the lead. It looked as if he would win, but as he neared the finish he was haunted by the question, "Where is Bannister?" As he turned to look, Bannister took the lead. Landy later told a Time magazine reporter, "If I hadn't looked back, I would have won!"

The Armstrong story

The Tour De France, is a 2,126 mile bicycle race through the country of France, conducted in twenty stages over a period of three weeks, an average of over a hundred miles a day. Just for comparison, that's about the same as riding a bicycle from Morgantown, WV all the way to Miami, Florida, and then back again. The race includes a bit of everything: all-out sprints; long days traveling through the French countryside; agonizing climbs over the Pyrenees mountains; and then terrifying descents from those same mountains, in which the cyclists reach speeds of over 70 miles an hour. The athletes have to contend with all kinds of hazards: narrow streets, blown tires - even small children darting out into the road. And they ride in all kinds of conditions: heat, wind, rain, even hail. In short, it is one of the most grueling athletic contests ever devised by man.

Lance Armstrong's single-minded devotion to training; his willingness to suffer physically, to push his mind and body to their absolute limit, in the pursuit of athletic victory. That's really been the key to his success. Listen to this passage, which describes his preparations for the 1999 Tour De France:

"I went back to training. I rode, and I rode, and I rode. I rode like I had never ridden, punishing my body up and down every hill I could find. . . . I remember one day in particular, May 3, a raw European spring day, biting cold. I steered my bike into the Alps, with Johan following in a car. By now it was sleeting and 32 degrees. I didn't care. We stood at the roadside and looked at the view and the weather, and Johan suggested that we skip it. I said, "No. Let's do it." I rode for seven straight hours, alone. To win the Tour I had to be willing to ride when no one else would ride." - It's Not About the Bike, pp. 221-222

Riding a bicycle up a mountain, alone, in the freezing rain, for seven straight hours, is commitment. Lance was willing to undergo any amount of suffering, any amount of physical and mental punishment, in order to win a bike race.

Sometimes you have to run the race alone but don't give up.