Flag Day

Last Thursday was Flag Day, a day rarely recognized outside of elementary schools. It' a day to fly the flag and remember it is the banner under which we are united. Liberal, Conservative, religious, agnostic, rich or poor; our diversity of religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds is breathtaking. This diversity makes us the dynamic, vibrant, unique group brought together by our flag. The flag reminds us that despite our differences, we are united and in this country we are able to build our dream.

Triathlon in many ways offers a similar bond and boundless opportunity. Before each race, we listen to the national anthem and for those few minutes there is goodwill and lighthearted rapport even among the fiercest competitors. We feel comfort in the power of association based on our lifestyle, even if that person is a complete stranger. There could be two people standing in line at the local super Wally at adjacent registers. One's wearing a finisher shirt, the other is hauling a 6 pack gallon size of Gatorade and for an instant both guys glances meet and they exchange smiles. Yes they're both thinking the same thing, we're a part of the same tribe.

Being deployed all over the world during my various tours with the army, I have had the privilege of working alongside countless international officers and NCOs. I've made many close friends, and learned a lot about the ties that bind people, leadership and service. While the lessons of leadership remain constant throughout the world, the view of service varies wildly depending on whom you speak to and where they come from.

One take on the subject of service, passed to me by a British Infantry officer, troubled me for a very long time, and only upon looking deep within myself did I realize the harsh truth contained within. I want to share it with you: in our country, in our society, as Americans, we have a romanticized perception of military service as "Selfless Service", that is, sacrificing your time and perhaps your life in pursuit of the greater good for your country and its citizens. Everywhere you look, you'll see stress put on the Army value of "Selfless Service". Our culture, this American culture, is a warrior society with a distinct class of professional citizen soldiers. Our children are not raised as soldiers, but rather make a conscious decision at adulthood, or in some cases much later in life, to become soldiers. In that, I submit to you the following: being a soldier is the most selfish thing an honorable man can ever aspire to be. All my experience, everything I've been taught by our society, screams the contrary. But pause one second and consider the following: as soldiers, we train, we deploy, and we fight. And all the time we spend away from our families, the things we demand not ask that they accept and deal with are not trivial. We place intense burdens on those we love, and we expect them to deal with them unequivocally, and with a smile on their faces and a big yellow ribbon tied around the old oak tree. We do this, while we pursue our chosen paths in life. Is this self-centered? Is this reasonable? Sounds like triathlon training?

In the military, as a soldier, you are hindered only by the limits of your ambition, or the lack of such. In triathlon you do too. Soldiers, good ones, strive for excellence and self-improvement, just as do triathletes. Every year you go back to your local tri, just to break previous years results. I didn't become a triathlon shop owner for any other reason than the pursuit of being the best shop it could be. I wanted nothing more than to be "the place" that people would turn to when they needed to know anything about triathlon. I wanted to be confident that knowledge and experience would give me the edge. So when someone would get the crazy idea to do a triathlon and had enough guts to get his or her butt off the couch, I could help them find the sense of invincibility, of power over there own destiny; in short the way triathlon makes you feel. And so that come race day you could face your enemy of mental demons and become the best you could be on and after race day. Triathlon has given me the opportunity to make friends and comrades that I would have otherwise never, ever have met. And the friendships are forged under the stress of training and competing. I have been through more with my triathlon acquaintances, than I have with my lifelong civilian friends from my previous life before I entered the sport. And those bonds of camaraderie are often overlooked, even underestimated, by people who have never acted in the defense of others. If I give a salt tablet to an athlete struggling and running slightly slanted at mile 20, it won't make a difference to another racer or someone in the crowd; I'll just be another athlete. But it might make a great deal of difference for the guy or girl who took it. Now that's powerful.

When training, you realize this sport is what feeds you. It clothes you. It gives you shelter of the daily stresses. It dictates your purpose and focus. It sharpens the mind, it strengthens the body. It gives us the opportunity to rise above, or fall flat on our face. It heals us and can even be considered as a form of therapy.

I am deeply touched and humbled by each and every one of your words, thoughts, and deeds after I post one of these posts. When I get a letter or email telling me how well someone did or how much this sport has changed his or her life, I am profoundly moved. To have friends, and even people who I have never met, who care about what we're here at SBR are trying to do, makes me incredibly proud. But it also makes me feel incredibly guilty. I do what I do because I love it, and could not imagine doing anything else. So in that sense, my "service" is, arguably, self-serving. The real heroes of this sport are the wives, the husbands, the life partners, the children, the parents who stand by our side and support us, the people we love who make sure we have a better place to come home to than when we left to go on a six hour ride. At the end, when you break it all down you realize we have it good here at home, in the United States.

There are people who combat the stupidity we see more and more of at home, who fight the ideological battle against people who won't let our soldiers do what needs to be done out here. There are also the people who send boxes, write letters and pray for the families. The soldiers families are the people who are the real heroes of this war we somehow got entangled in. Without those people, the soldiers job would be a lot more difficult. I don't really care who is wrong or right, but all we need is for our boys to come home safe and with haste.

Dream big,