From Couch to Competitor: Anthony's Experience

This post was written by Anthony. This is how he felt heading into the Road Titans 300 challenge.

The text message from Winston came in at around 4 AM PST before I was about to start a training session for my third and final TT we had targeted in early April: "You want to do Road Titans this year?" What a challenge just to finish something like that I thought to myself. I had read up on how the ride was organized after Winston had mentioned earlier in the year, and thought I could comfortably tackle it in the C or B group with some work. The finishing times in those groups seemed reasonable and were well within reach, plus the event was in sunny South Carolina, a perfect setting to evade the start of an impending grey Pacific Northwest winter, "Sure" I replied "I will register for it tonight which group do you think is best for me, C or B?". Turns out Winston had a different idea, "Sign up for the A group you will ride the three days with me in that group." After some thought and hesitation I replied back "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Winston's reply "You can do it, I will have you ready"  That night after a couple of rounds of mental volleyball, I registered for the event in the A group, and a nagging doubt lingered, had I overstepped my bounds, and naively wandered into something way beyond my ability?

In retrospect I realize I had, and although it wasn't apparent to me yet, it was precisely what I needed to gain a deeper understanding into what it means to confront doubt, channel adversity into strength, and a belief that I could finish a challenging event amongst a group of talented athletes. Winston's simple, positive, albeit powerful reply marked the beginning of a transformative journey through wind and rain swept training days in the Pacific Northwest, a ride from Vancouver BC to Whistler, and three epic days of riding in South Carolina.  In our conversations over the years I have come to realize that elite pros like Winston take every opportunity, whether its training or racing to constantly reinforce and solidify an unwavering belief in their abilities. Every training ride and piece of encouragement from Winston, presented me the opportunity to embrace a challenging training schedule and make his instinctive belief in my ability to complete the challenge my own. Without that belief no amount of physical training would prepare me to clip in for the final 104 miles and 10000 feet of climbing on the third day of the RT300. 

Read on about our first day in the RT300. Bruce Lee's idea that "What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately

become"  took on new significance for me. My days of training in the rain in the Pacific Northwest also came in handy, since my visions of a sun swept southern landscape would not exactly materialize as I thought they would. That's bike racing in a nutshell, things rarely play out they way we think they will. It would be my first test in the belief I had honed in the months leading up to the event.