This past Sunday I competed in the Bell Island Road Cycling Race 🚴♂️
This was my biggest cycling race yet - 105 km in the Elite Category.
There were 13 guys in my division. I finished 12th place... and the guy behind me dropped out after 70 km and didn't finish.
So technically, I was last place among everyone who crossed the finish line in my category 😅
Would I have liked to finish higher?
Of course.
But I still walked away with a win because I set a personal best and rode my fastest ever 100 km on the bike.
And honestly, I think this race was a valuable lesson for my son Harvey as well.
He got to see his dad show up, take on a big challenge, give it his best effort, get his arse kicked, finish at the bottom of the pack...
And still be completely OK with the experience.
Harvey is very hard on himself when he doesn't do well at something. Like a lot of kids (and adults), he wants to be good right away.
But one of the lessons we're trying to teach him is:
- Sometimes you're going to mess up.
- Sometimes you're going to lose.
- Sometimes you're going to give it everything you've got and still come up short.
And that's OK.
The goal isn't to avoid failure - it's to learn from it, build resilience, and keep moving forward.
You don't always get to control the outcome. But you always get to control whether or not you show up and give your best effort. 💪
