Power of Support & Positive Thought

This past weekend I was in Penticton to cheer on a friend of mine who was undertaking his first Ironman event. For those unaware, the Ironman consists of a 4 km swim followed by an 180 km cycle followed by a 42 km run. This is all done consecutively and must be completed in under 17 hours. This is an awesome undertaking and completion justifies the title. My friend did complete in 12 hours and 42 minutes. Another member of the club finished after 16 hours and forty minutes - 20 minutes under the cut-off of midnight after which you are not considered to have been an official finisher.

One of the curious hings I noticed about this event is how people responded to positive encouragement. We positioned ourselves along the 2 mile out and back finishing chute. It amazed me to see people who were having to walk on the outbound leg after positive encouragement were running on the return leg. Granted they could now see the finish line, however, the response achieved from positive mental energy from people who were 223 km into their event was astonishing. The positive mental imaging clearly empowered these people to overcome their fatigue and finish strongly. This kind of power needs to be remembered when facing challenges.