Competition

Friends - its confession time.  I am competitive.  Super competitive. 

I am also, in many respects, lazy.  In my personal life, there are things I'll just flat out avoid if means I'm not inconvenienced. 

If you are competitive, I have a question:

Who are you trying to beat?

I remember in high school and college running competitively.  We always ran against the same schools or the same bunch of them.  After time, you knew who your competition was.  You knew the face of the person who you just wanted to beat.  You knew the folks, and frankly you knew the ones who were fun to beat.

I remember one guy for a neighboring high school I out-kicked one time.  He kicked too soon - I heard this primal roar approaching my shoulder - I kicked once he was even with me.  I beat him, and, long story short, he ended up diving for the line at the chute, hitting the ground, puking and rolling under a pickup truck parked near the chute.  Awesome.

While that was satisfying, the person I love to beat the most is me.  I love to the challenge of running farther or running faster than I have before.  Most runners would say that they love the run, they love to compete, but if there's anything that running teaches me - it's that I can be a better version of myself.