San Antonio Recap

I had a pretty good time while I was in San Antonio. The Prudential Real Estate conference that I attended was extremely well organized and had some fantastic speakers. The entertainment they provided before and after the plethora of award ceremonies was great and for the most part, the conference kept my attention throughout.

I also managed to run quite a bit while I was in San Antonio. I must have completely covered the Riverwalk about a half dozen times. My running appears to be coming around and I’ve put in 68 miles in the past 11 days with no ill effects. Each day I was really looking forward to running.

Perhaps it was the influence Ronan Tynan, one of the conferences keynote speakers. He is a very compelling individual who overcame a physical deformity at birth that eventually required him to have both legs amputated below the knees. Despite that, he went on to become a successful jockey, doctor, para-olympics gold medal winner and a world famous tenor. Listening to him tell the story of his life was deeply inspiring and motivating. If he can do all of that, I can manage to find someway to train for a shot at Kona.

Another keynote speaker was Jaime Clarke. Jaime has successfully climbed Mount Everest after two previous failures. He also crossed the Empty Quarter of Arabia on camel. This story was particularly compelling.

He described how during almost the entire crossing of the desert, all he wished for was for the journey to be over. He was hot, tired, thirsty and beaten down by the relentless sun and heat. He went into some detail about how painful and experience this was for him.

However, when he finally reached the end of the desert and could see the lights of the city ahead of him he realized that the journey was over and all he wanted to do was to go back into the desert (sound familiar Ironman racers?). He then made the realization that for most of his entire life, he was leaving in the past contemplating his previous journeys or planning for a new adventure for the future. He said he realized that he was never living in the moment to enjoy what he is currently experiencing.

I like to think that I have avoided this type of mistake. I make a conscience effort to stop, look around and take in my environment during my training and journey towards the Kona goal. Before I saw Jaime speak this morning, I set out for my run along the Riverwalk. I headed towards the direction a water falls and realized that I hadn’t taken a picture of it. This bothered me, so I ran back to my hotel room to get a picture, so I can appreciate in the future what I enjoyed about it at this current moment. It didn’t matter to me that I was going to lose some running time, since my life is not about how many minutes I put into training, but more about how much of it I can capture and keep with me as I progress on my journey. I found what Jaime said to be very resonating and vowed to always remind myself to savoir the moments of my life while I still planning for my future goals.

I am glad I went on this business trip. I had an opportunity to hear several speakers that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity had I not gone. I still missed my family very much, but then again distance makes the heart grow fond.

Also, if I hadn’t gone, I would have missed a performance by the Dallas Cowgirl Cheerleaders, an excellent keynote address by Ken Blanchard, a Texas Rodeo (sort of lame) and a standup comic routine by Jeff Foxworthy (excellent). I am coming home very inspired and anxious to begin training in full for this year’s IMLP.