Posts Tagged Ironman
Where is Your True Starting Point?
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on August 16th, 2010
Yesterday I was out on a bicycle ride with a good friend of mine. As we were riding we started talking about the progress I’ve made over the past year in the sport of triathlon and how I am feeling as I prep for next Ironman in November.
I told him I felt unbelievably different. I am down several pounds, my cycling has improved, and so has my running. Most importantly, my mindset has improved. Last year when I took on the Kona Ironman I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know that carrying around extra weight could affect me as much as it did.
Last weekend I was flipping through the channels and caught the replay of the Kona Ironman on NBC. I watched the race and saw my brief segment once again. When I saw myself, I wasn’t disappointed, I was a little sad. The reason I was sad was because I knew that I had a false sense of how I looked and felt physically.
I was big, not as in pre-Biggest Loser big, but I was carying more weight than I should have been to be competing in a race of that magnitude. The thing is, is that at that time I didn’t realize it. I felt like “I can move 140.6 miles in one day. I am in pretty good shape.” That statement was partially true.
True in the sense that you have to have a pretty good level of fitness to do that race and make the cut-offs. Not true, in that I was definitely carrying too much body fat and failed to realize it. I saw myself as being better off than I was. It wasn’t until I saw myself on television that I realized just how big I was.
I am convinced that had I weighed then what I weigh now, I would have finished that race in under the cut-off time and would have been an official Ironman. That is neither here nor there now. I didn’t finish in time. Heavy or not, I have yet to become an Ironman in the true sense.
What does this have to do with the title of this post? As I was talking yesterday, I came to the conclusion that many of us have a false sense of where we are when it comes to weight. Some of us can think we are smaller and better off than we are, others think we are bigger and worse off than we really are.
In order to know where we really are, we must give ourselves a true starting point. By true starting point I am talking about where are TODAY. I don’t mean 5, 10, or even 20 years ago. The only way to gauge our progress is by having an official starting point and then using that point as a gauge.
For example. If I weigh 240 pounds today, that is what I weigh. In a year from now, if I weigh 200, I will say I lost 40 pounds. If on the other hand I weigh 245, I will say I gained 5 pounds this year. Here is why this is important. I could use my pre-Biggest Loser weight of 353 as a gauge and in turn be able to say that I have lost 108 pounds. Although this is true, it isn’t necessarily the whole truth.
I lost 157 pounds on the show then gained weight back. I then lost weight again. The reality is that If I use the 353 pound number than I am really just losing and gaining the same weight over and over again. This is why I am now using 240 as my starting point. By doing this I can have a clear number and place to begin.
What this allows me to do is wipe the slate clean. I can no longer play games like the “I use to weigh… and even though I have gained…. I ‘ve still kept off….” I know what I weigh and will use this as my starting point and lifelong marker. By doing this, I will have a realistic perception and gauge of how I am doing on this lifelong journey.
In essence, our true starting point is TODAY. Now, lets get started!
See you tomorrow.
Insanity?
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on May 19th, 2010
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. While I agree with that for the most part, I feel that sometimes you actually DO have to the same thing and expect a different result.
Last year I competed in one of the toughest triathlons in the world, the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona Hawaii. I didn’t become an official finisher. I missed the cut-off by 3 minutes and 45 seconds. At the time I was happy to have crossed the finish line but as the months passed I looked back and I had some frustrations. I realized some things that could have changed the outcome.
I can’t go back and redo that race. Unfortunately, I will more than likely never have the opportunity to race that race again. The great thing is that there are other Ironmans around the country that I can compete in.
That is exactly what I am going to do. This year I will be competing in the Florida Ironman. Maybe I am insane, or maybe I want to finish what I started. I’m leaning toward the latter. It would be insane if I thought I could just show up and finish since I was so close last year.
That is not my approach. I am taking this very seriously and have changed everything this year in regards to training. I have a huge goal I want to reach as far as finish time is concerned. I will be doing videos to share my training and mindset and hope you will follow my journey this season.
Come with me as I work toward my goal of becoming an OFFICIAL IRONMAN!
My Life After The Biggest Loser Part 1
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on January 21st, 2010
This is a serious question I want you to think about. What do you suppose would happen to you if you walked up to someone at the grocery store, looked in their cart, and then picked something up and asked them if they should be eating whatever it was that you picked up?
They may look at you like you were crazy or they may spray you with a can of pepper spray. This very incident has happened to my wife and I on several occasions. When you go on television you open yourself up to receive unsolicited opinions both bad and good.
Here’s the weird part, we don’t mind when this happens to us. It is our life. Suzy and I have opened our lives up to the world. People know a lot about us, they know about our children, they know about our marraige, we have made that available to them.
The thing is that the people they “know”, they really don’t know at all. Most of what they know is based on CHARACTERS from television. I changed a lot during my time on BL. There are actually very few people who really know me.
When I first signed up to go on the show I was very naive. Seriously, I thought that when you go on a reality show you just have a camera following you around while you do whatever it is you do. I didn’t know about filming days or interviews or doing press. I was like the country bumpkin going to the big city.
I’m not going to lie, when I arrived at the BL ranch I was there to workout, lose weight, and win some money. That was it. I didn’t care about getting famous or being on tv. Needless to say, I was a tough person to work with. I didn’t realize until later in the process that I was a character in a story.
What people see each week is a two hour story based on hundreds of hours of footage. What the viewer gets to see, and the opinions that they form by watching, is based only on what the story line is for that week. You will never really get to know the people on the show unless you meet them personally.
“Matt, quit complaining. You won a bunch of money and this what you get.” You are right and I am not complaining, in fact, I enjoy it. My career as a speaker depends upon people wanting to see me and hear about my life. What I am saying is that I had no idea how much life would change as a result of being on BL.
Yes, it is tough when you read some of the harsh words that people say from time to time and yes I do see it. I would bet that most people who have been on the show see what is being written about them. What I am saying today is this. I wish that people would think about what they are saying about another person when they say what they say. I wish they would give the contestants the courtesy to be human, to make mistakes and even have struggles.
I love this country and the rights that we have. I believe in free and uncensored speech and opinions. All I ask is that before saying what a horrible person someone is or calling them names is that we think about a couple of things. First, you may not really know that person or what they are going through. Second, that person probably has family and friends who do know them and words from a stranger can hurt.
For me, words from strangers can sting but often they motivate me. You wouldn’t believe the things that people said about me when it was announced that I was doing the Kona Ironman. At first it was a little rough but then I used it to motivate me.
Lesson for today: The people who go on BL are real people. They have feelings. They have struggles and successes. They have jobs, families, and friends. They have opened up their lives in order to inspire, motivate, and yes, even entertain perfect strangers. Keep that in mind next time you may feel like tearing them down.
As for me, let it rip! I love the good and the bad of being a “celebrity”. It allows for me to have a great life, spend time with my family and love my career. I appreciate and value the opinions that I get from everybody because at the end of the day I know who I am. My family, friends, and my God know who I am and that is all I need to know.
See you tomorrow!
PS. For those who were wondering if I ever tried to reach out and talk to Jillian, the answer is yes. I wouldn’t have talked about it if I hadn’t taken action on my end.
The Reality of Reality Weight Loss….
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on January 20th, 2010
I seriously just erased an entire blog because I didn’t like the way it sounded when I read it. I want to talk about some of the realities of being a contestant on The Biggest Loser but I don’t want to bash the show. I want to talk about what life is like after but don’t want to sound like I am making excuses. Here is what I am going to do. I am going to type what I am thinking and not worry about what others say and here’s why.
I WAS THERE! I was actually on the show and know what it has been like for me. I can only speak for myself and what I have experienced. There have been 7 seasons since I was on the show. Things may or may not have changed and just like any other experience in life, people who have been in the same situation can have dramatically different experiences.
I want to talk about the big topic of discussion that I have been reading a lot about lately. In a recent magazine article, I read about the type of support available to contestants after leaving the show. Back when I won there wasn’t a whole lot. Please remember that I was on in the infancy stage of BL. Before the show was as big as it is today. None of us, especially the producers, could have ever imagined what BL was to become.
That being said, I don’t think anyone could have imagined the impact being on the show would have on an individual and their life after being on the show. I have talked to recent contestants and am glad to hear that they have access to support. I am lucky in that I met my wife on the show and we could lean on each other. I can’t imagine going home to a spouse who had no idea what kind of transformation I had just gone through. Many people have had to do just that. They have had to go home and explain why they “seem different” or why they choose to no longer do some of the things they use to. Some people lose friends and some even spouses.
One of the great things about being on BL is that you learn to rely on yourself. One of the bad things about being on BL is that sometimes you start to rely on yourself too much. Rather than seek out help, which seems to be available now, we (I) just assume that it was up to us to fix it. After all, I lost the weight I can deal with this, whatever “this” may be.
I was bitter for a long time toward Jillian after the show because I didn’t feel like I got any support from her after the show. The reason being is that after the finale, I never talked to her again. I don’t know why or if I did something to upset her, we just have never connected again. It was dissapointing to me. When I gained weight I got embarrassed and thought maybe that is why we haven’t talked.
Just this past week we appeared on the Joy Behar show which Jillian was also on. I was nervous and thought “How is this gonna go?” We still didn’t get a chance to talk. During the show she said something that the casual viewer would have not picked up on. It was a simple comment about me completing the Ironman World Championship triathlon. When we left the building I told my wife that I wasn’t angry anymore. In fact, after she said what she said I realized something. I had been acting immature.
Let me use yet another analogy. Yesterday it was prison, today it’s highschool.
Almost every highschool team has a senior star. The kid who the coaches have spent hours, even years, developing and coaching. The reason this athlete has gotten to the level of being the star is because they listened to their coaches and worked hard. Let’s say this kid leads his team to a state title in their sport.
They go home and give a speech to the fans in their hometown. The people who have watched them progress into the athlete they have become are all there. The kid more than likely thanks the fans, their parents, and lastly their coaches. Everyone in the gym quietly wonders what is going to be like next year without this athlete on the team.
Guess what, a new kid will step into the old stars place! Want to know why? Because a good coach knows that they have a job to do. They can’t sit around worrying about whether or not the star that just graduated is going to make it on their own. A good coach prepares their athletes to live well after their time on the team has concluded. Of course from time to time they may think about some of the kids they coached in the past, but they have a job to do and a new group of kids to focus on. It is up to the athlete to implement the lessons they learned from their coach.
If you are having a tough time trying to figure out how this relates to BL and specifically my and Jillian’s relationship or lack thereof, let me break it down for you.
Jillian has a job to do. Her job is to train the contestants and get them to lose the most amount of weight possible while they are working with her. I know she genuinely cares about the contestants but she has now trained hundreds of contestants. It isn’t an option for her to personally check in on all of us. As much as I wish she could, it isn’t feasable and to tell the truth is a little selfish on my part. That day, after the show, I realized that even though Jillian and I haven’t talked since the finale of my season, she still cares enough to keep tabs on what I have been doing. Hearing her make that brief statement on Joy’s show was freeing.
Jillian taught me a lot, but just as the coach of any successful team she has to focus on the team she has currently. What I have to do now is implement the lessons I learned from her and take care of myself like a big boy.
See you tomorrow!
Kona Ironman 2009 part V
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on October 21st, 2009
When I could finally see the lights of the Energy Lab I began to get excited. I knew that the turn around was near. My excitement faded quickly when I realized that you didn’t just get to the corner and turn around. I had to run down into the area about a mile before the actual turn around. When I hit the turn around Joe and his friend Collin did some quick math. I needed to do under 14 minute miles the rest of the way in to finish. There could be no walking.
I jogged through another ice bath and caught up to another athlete. At the same time I saw him there was a flashing sign that said “Raise the Bar Matt!” I am a member of an awesome tri team in Seattle called Raise the Bar and my local coach Patty Swedeberg must have put that up there for me to see. I was literally getting words of encouragement in the most unlikely places.
After the sign I looked over and noticed that the man next to me wasn’t your typical athlete. He only had one leg and one arm. I realized that I didn’t have much to complain about at that moment. We stayed together for a while before he began to fall back. I found out later that his back began to seize up and he didn’t get to finish.
If it was possible for it to get and darker it sure seemed like it did as I got back on the Queen K to head back to town. At this point I began to pray for strength and an improved attitude. Thoughts began to enter my mind that were not helping my cause. Thoughts like “Hey you tried”, “Maybe that guy was right, you could lose some weight”, “Try again later”, and many others were flowing freely. It’s funny because right as I was starting to let some of those thoughts take hold, Joe said “It’s gonna hurt just as bad if you run or walk and you still have to get back to the finish somehow!” He was right. Even if I gave up right then I would still have to get back to town on my own two feet. I picked up again.
When I was about 3.5 miles out a crowd of people came running out and surrounding me. I couldn’t see who they were, but it turned out to be some of my friends and family. They had come out to encourage me at 11:30 at night in the middle of nowhere. They shouted positive words and stayed right with me. I didn’t show it, but I really appreciated what they did.
As I popped a hill I could see the lights of the finish and the announcer calling out finishers. Joe, who was in front of me yelling and thoroughly pissing me off now was screaming the time I needed to make and I thought to myself “Leave it all out here or you are going to regret this moment the rest of your life!” I took off. I ran as fast as I could, I don’t know where it came from but I know God was moving me forward. I didn’t hurt, my feet didn’t bother me I wasn’t breathing hard, I was just running. I was running to become an Ironman!
As I made the turn onto the famous Alii Drive, there were people lining both sides of the street going crazy. Two little boys ran beside me for a minute screaming that I could do it. I don’t remember much beside thinking “Keep running and don’t thow up right now! Keep running!” I saw the finish shoot and kept going towards it. There are to arches as you come through the chute. I stopped at the first one thinking that was the end. It wasn’t and I took off for the next one, the real finish. I raised my arms as I crossed the line and thanked God for the life I have and all he has done for me.
I looked up at the clock and saw a 16 with some numbers behind it as I fell into my wife’s arms and then sat down. I sat for a moment and then felt amazing. I had just become an Ironman, or so I thought. I got up and walked to the med tent to get some IV fluids. Several of my friends were there telling me what a great job I had done. I still thought I had made the cut-off when I asked where I should pick up my medal. That is when some one said “I don’t think you get a medal Matt, you have to finish under the 17 hrs. You were 17:03.” I was sad for a minute, I thought I had made it and was now an Ironman. I hadn’t.
3 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot. It’s not a lot, but it kept me from being able to call myself an Ironman. Although it kept me from being able to call myself an Ironman, it did not keep me from crossing the finish line like everyone else who did become Ironmen and women. I did the distance!
Over the next couple days I am going to share my thoughts on coming so close, what I really learned, and what’s next. I hope you will come back for what I consider the best part….
Kona Ironman 2009 part IV
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on October 20th, 2009
I’m not going to lie. I was hurting on the run before I even got out of the chute. In the tri’s I did this summer my feet hurt for a little bit and the pain went away. This was way different. I jogged out the chute and once again the crowd cheering made the steps manageable. As I made my way up the hill I saw Suzy and Rex. I stopped to give them a kiss, had a quick cry and headed out for what was about to be the longest night of my life.
After the first mile my coach came riding up on his bike and told me I was doing great. All I had to do was 15 minute miles and I would become an Ironman with plenty of time. I thought no problem, I had never been even close to that in my training runs. I was in or so I thought. I also had never had to run a marathon after riding 112 miles in any of my training runs either.
At the first aid station I grabbed some sponges and soaked my head and neck with cold water. I grabbed some Gatorade and water and chugged them down. About 20 steps out of transition I vomitted. I continue to vomit for several minutes. When I reached the next aid station I did the same thing. Again, several steps out of transisiton I began to vomit. This routine would continue for the next 20 miles. I know I threw up at least 80 times throughout the night. I was not able to keep anything down. We tried pretzels, powerbars, oranges, nothing would stay down. In attempt to stay hydrated and keep going I simply repeated the process the whole time. Aid station, drink, eat, vomit. Unfortunately vomitting was the least of my problems.
I reached the 5 mile turn around as the sun was going down. A guy came up to me and handed me a glow in the dark band that I had to wear so cars would see me. This was the when it really sank in just how much further I had to go. Jim had said that I only needed to do 15 minute miles to finish. It took me 1:45 to get to the 5 mile check point. You don’t have to be a math major to figure out that I was falling behind.
I was at around mile 6 when this guy came up behind me on a moped. He informed me that he was the sweep and that it was his job to pull people off the course who weren’t on pace to finish. If I stayed ahead of him I would be fine. If I didn’t, I was done.
It was about that point that I was going past a little beach area with a sea wall. I seriously considered jumping off the wall right then. I remember thinking “Maybe I’ll jump that wall, hopefully I will just break an ankle and this will be over.” It didn’t take much to talk myself out of jumping that wall, but at that moment it did seem like a viable option.
I kept going and got back into town. As I was passing a restraunt I heard some guy yell “Maybe you should try losing another couple hundred pounds fat ass!” I don’t know why it happened, but at that moment I became severly self-concious and started breathing hard, like I did when I weighed over 350 pounds. All of those old insecurities came roaring back into my mind. Here I was doing an Ironman and all I could think about was how out of shape I use to be and it was affecting me in this moment.
I gathered myself and realize that the guy was an idiot sitting in a bar drinking and I was out doing an Ironman. I had to get over it and I did. I came up on one of the last hills out of town and saw my wife walking along the side of the road crying. She knew I wasn’t doing good she asked me if I wanted to walk with me. I told her no even though I did, I was starting to get a little crazy in the head about this time. At the same time I saw her, a van with flashing lights came pulling up beside me and a couple gals got out to ask me some questions. You know you are going slow when you are the guy racing and the medics are walking beside you asking questions and not even getting out of breath. They let me continue.
Once I got to the top of the hill it was a left out to the energy lab turn around. I was still vomiting, but at least now it was dark enough that no one would see me. My coach Jim and good friend, Joe Lotus, magically appeared again and told me it was time to pick it up. Not only did they let me know, but the sweep scooter came up and let me know exactly how fast I needed to do my next mile in order to stay in the race and not get pulled. This act would continue for the next 9 miles. I was always just fast enough from aid station to aid station to not get pulled.
The darkness on the Queen K is like nothing I have ever expereinced. There are very few lights and you can’t really gauge where you are on the course. That may have been the hardest part for me. Not having a way to visually gauge where you are going can be frustrating and emotionally draining but so can throwing up over and over.
At about mile 20 my coach raced ahead to an aid station to tell them to dump a garbage can of ice cold water over me. I’m talking a huge can that most people use to put a week’s worth of trash in. As I came into the aid station two big huge Hawaiian guys picked up that big plastic garbage can full of Arctic Ocean temperature water and dumped it on my head.
It took my breath away and my entire body felt like it was convulsing, but it felt great and it seemed like my body woke up. I posted one of my fastest miles of the night after that and even better, I stopped vomitting! From there on out I got an ice bath at every aid station the rest of the night. I was the last guy on the course so it wasn’t like anyone else was going to be needing it.
Come back tomorrow as I take you with me the rest of the way!
Kona Ironman 2009 part III
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on October 19th, 2009
I came out of the water feeling really good. I had finished the swim well under the time that I had set for myself and was excited to begin the bike portion of the race. All year biking has been my strongest part and I was confident that I would be able to get myself even more minutes going into the run.
I have heard epic stories about how hard the ride is in Kona. According to most of the athletes that I had talked to who had raced Kona, I could expect some crazy wind and extreme heat. I was fully anticipating both.
I left the transition area and the could feel the energy from the crowd. It was the closest I will ever feel to being a rockstar. I could hear the announcer calling out my name and people were screaming encouragement. As I rounded a small turn to head up the hill I saw my wife and boys who were yelling support. I got a little teary seeing how much they supported me. Rex, my 2 yr old, had the most intense look on his little face. I know he may be too young to understand what was going on completely but he knew daddy was doing something important.
The first part of the ride is a loop through town in which my adrenaline made it seem almost easy. After town I headed out onto the Queen K Highway to make my way up to Hawi, the turn around. I didn’t really notice the wind or the heat that much until I made the turn up the hill for the last 19 miles to the turn around.
The hills are long and steady and I really began to feel it. The other thing that I was noticing is that there is absolutely no shade along the way. I remember going through stretches where trees lined the road thinking “How can there be no shade here?” I made the turn around at about 4 hours, nearly 40 minutes behind my goal. I swtiched out my water bottles and headed back to town. There was a pretty good stretch of downhill here I was able to coast and try to dry out my shoes.
I live in Seattle where it rarely gets hot. During my ride out to Hawi I was dumping water on my head at the aid stations. On the last stretch up to Hawi my feet began to hurt really bad and I couldn’t figure out why. As I was coming back down from Hawi I finally figured it out. Much of the water that I had been dumping on myself to keep cool had been running down my leg and into my shoe. The moisture was turning my feet into mush. You know that feeling you have when you stay in the hot tub too long, that raisin feeling? I had done that to my feet and it was beginning to take its toll. I kept taking my feet out of my shoes to dry them a little but it didn’t really help.
The thing that I really began to notice was the wind on the way back. It really didn’t seem bad on the way out, but on the way back it was brutal. On stretches that seemed like I should have been able to tuck and pick up speed going down hill, I had to pedal hard to keep moving. The way back seemed twice as hard for me as going out.
Every now and then a car packed full of my friends and family would drive by yelling support and holding up bright yellow signs with words of encouragement. For a moment I would forget about the pain in my feet and have a few seconds of joy.
I think it really set in that I had a long night ahead of me when I got to the energy lab and saw all the people who nearly done with their run. Here I was still on my bike and they were about six miles from becoming Ironmen and women. I kept plugging along knowing that I had to keep moving so that I would make the bike cut-off.
I came into transition at 5:02 the cut-off was at 5:30. My bike leg had taken me over an hour more than I had anticipated. Once again, the crowd urged me forward. I got to the transition area and my first steps off of my bike were some of the most painful steps I had ever taken. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but my feet were already numb before I had even taken my first step of the run leg. I walked and jogged through the transition are to the changing tent. Got changed and headed out for my first marathon ever.
I was excited to be starting the last leg and knew that it was going to be long night. I’m glad I didn’t know then just how long it really was going to be.
See you tommorow!
Kona Ironman 2009 part II
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on October 18th, 2009
When I woke up on Saturday morning I still wasn’t feeling nervous. There is a certain calm that happens upon you when you know you have prepared the best you can for something and I knew I had done all I could. I knew I wasn’t going to magically become a world-class runner or cyclist in the next few hours before the race so I slept in the car on the way to the race.
We got to the race at around 5 am. I proceeded to the body marking area where I was greeted by the bright lights of an NBC film crew. I got my number marked on my arm, 196. After the body marking I walked over to the bike transition area where I made sure I had enough air in my tires. I did until I turned the bike pump switch the wrong way and let all the air out of my tire! I got it figured out and got my tires inflated to the right pressure.
On the way out of the transition area I felt like something had stung me right in the middle of my back. I walked over to Suzy and asked her if there was anything on my back. She said there was a big bump but neither of us thought much of it. It wasn’t until my coach, Jim Vance, came over and I told him about it that we actually took my shirt off to look. He pulled this huge bee looking thing off me that had gotten trapped inside my shirt and proceeded to sting me a couple more times. I’m not allergic to anything so I think he was more worried than I was.
It was getting closer to race time and it was time for me to head toward the water. I shook Jim’s hand and gave Suzy and the boys a kiss and said “I’ll see you later tonight.” I got my skin suit on, it’s suppose to help you swim faster, and made my way into the water.
When I got into the water I just stood there taking it all in and thanking God for giving me this opportunity. I have wrestled in state, national and world competitions, and none of them compared to the site I was seeing. There were people lined up on the shore for as far as you can see, there were guys jumping out of planes and parachuting into the bay where we were about to swim, there was music so loud it vibrated your heart, and most of all there were over 1800 athletes treading water while getting ready to pursue their goal of becoming an Ironman and I was fortunate enough to be one of them.
I stood there for another minute just taking it all in and believe it or not, I began to tear up. I had such a feeling of pride as I entered the water to begin treading water like everyone else. At this point nobody cared how I got to Kona, or what show I had won, or how big I was, we were all the same in that we were triathletes looking to become Ironmen and women.
After treading water for a few minutes, at exactly 7:00 am on October 10th, 2009 a cannon shook the bay in Kona, Hawaii. When that cannon went off it felt like someone gave me a brief squeeze around the chest and I took off into the churning white water.
I still felt like I was imaging as I took off and then WHAM! I got kicked in the jaw harder than I ever have, then I felt people litterally trying to swim over the top of me. At that moment it became crystal clear that this was different than any other triathlon I had done and that it was time to get serious.
I popped my head out of the water and found what I thought would be the best line for me and I stuck to it. I didn’t do anything mean, but I made sure that I was going to swim my race and held my line the rest of the way. After about 15 minutes things began to thin out and I settled in. My breathing was good and my stroke felt strong. Once I reached the turn around 1.2 miles away, I really began to settle in. I actually began to enjoy the swim. I didn’t feel tired and was seeing beautiful fish and a couple turtles. Once again a calm came over me and I was able to truly enjoy the experience that I was having.
After just over an hour and half I reached the shore again and began my transition to the bike and what was about to become the longest day of riding in my life.
See you tomorrow!
An open letter and the ONLY response to critics!
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on October 17th, 2009
Ben,
Thanks for the heads up, but I will be honest with you. I actually don’t read any forums. If Jim hadn’t forwarded me the email he sent you guys, I would have never even known that anything negative had ever been said about me on your site. I felt like you were very respectful and professional toward me when we interviewed and if you feel like covering my next Ironman when there won’t be any cameras and hoopla, I’d be glad to talk with you.
I’ve been in the public eye for many years now and have learned that no matter the success or the failure, there will be people jumping on the opportunity to bash a perfect stranger. I did the best I could that day and that is all I can do. At the end of the day, the only people I am worried about impressing are God, my family, and my friends. When it’s all said and done, whether I crossed the line at 16:59:59 or at 17:03, they all still love me and that is what is truly important to me.
This year people will be negative toward me and next year those same ignorant people will do it to someone else and no one will be sitting around talking about my performance this year. The cool thing is that the people I met while I was here, amateurs and pros alike were all so nice to me and that is what I am going to take away from this experience. The people screaming for me when I crossed that line, the strangers that ran alongside me down Alii Dr. and the 2 little boys yelling that I could still do it even though time was way past the cut-off. Those are memories that will be with me the rest of my life and as I said to you during our interview, I will never feel bad or apologize for making the most of an opportunity.
I was inspired that day, by the athletes that passed by me, by a stranger that I will never see again with one leg and one arm who was still going at the energy lab even though neither of us were going to be “official” Ironmen, by the people at the aid stations who never let on that I may not even get the opportunity to cross the line, by thousands of strangers screaming as I made the turn toward the finish, and most of all by my coaches, friends, and family who let me beleive I could actually do this and were still proud when I didn’t.
I didn’t do this Ironman to prove to some stranger wrong or right, I did it to prove to myself and others that we can do anything we set our minds to. For all of the negative statements, there are positives. For all of those feeling uninspired by my performance, there are those who will be. I am proud to think that whether I am a real Ironman or not, (I will be when I cross the line under the cut-off at my next one) there may be at least one person who chooses to chase what may seem to be an impossible goal and not quit until they get to the finish line.
Thanks for letting me know, but I am not going to waste a moment of my time trying to change the opinions of others toward me. Triathlon has been a gift in my life as well as my family and we are going to do our best to promote it and all it has to offer in the best light we can for as long as we can. The athletes that are already involved in this sport should welcome all people into the tri-life whether they are fat, skinny, tall, short, fast or slow. You never know, this sport just may be a new lease on life for someone.
Not crossing the finish line under the cut-off in Kona would be far less embarrasing than knowing I turned even one person off to this amazing sport because of my attitude toward them or their appearance. As I said in one of my interviews last week. “You can only make a first impression of someone by their appearance. You can never judge their heart and mind until you give them a chance.”
I firmly beleive that all of us in this great sport should give everybody who wants to, the chance to experience their own victory in our sport.
Have a great day!
Matt Hoover (Almost an Ironman this time!)
Matt Hoover
www.Matt-Hoover.com
www.BodyEvolution.com
Author: Matt Hoover’s Guide to Life, Love, and Losing Weight
