A Good Day

 

 

A good day can be many things. It can just be when things went well at work, or dinner turned out well and nice things were said. It could be a day when something you had been dreading turned out not to be too bad after all. 

Today was an exceptionally good day; when two people who had worked very hard for a result had both achieved their goal. For my husband it was especially good because he had simply helped and encouraged the other person to achieve a goal that they had set themselves some time ago. Steve had taken very seriously the act of simply standing by an athlete in whom he saw both potential and spirit. He has helped him work hard to improve his swimming and been there just to chat about how things were going with no thought of gain for himself. Just a plain old fashioned kindness, it would seem on the surface, except that he spent hours in consideration and thought about how best to help an athlete who was prepared to give that extra effort that is what makes the difference between wishing and hoping or knuckling down with a quiet determination to do better, no matter what the odds, or the difficulty or the sacrifice or the pain.  

Steve had for the second time gone as far as travelling to Germany support the man who has so much commitment. Steve knows that it is very hard to get through a monumental event without support from some quarter and it does not always matter where it is from, the only important thing is that the support is genuine.  

Craig Hunter has today reaped the reward for his total commitment to his aim to improve his performance and gain a much improved result. He has so quietly gone about his training; much of which is managed by himself, to his own programme to suit his lifestyle, work and family commitments. He is a quiet, modest man, not openly competitive but keeps his competitive streak to himself, within the confines his own head. There is no showing off for this ultra modest man and he is in a way only competing with himself, perhaps even his younger self. 

A major goal was achieved today with one of them nearly bursting with pride and openly emotional, whilst the other is bound by self control to a point where one wonders if he realises just how great his gain truly is. 

Craig Hunter competes in the 40-44 age group. The last time he tried to win a qualifying slot for the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, he got a slot on the roll down. Today he finished much higher: 5^th in his age group (that was about 500 deep.) He was 69^th Male overall. A massive improvement.