Good from Bad

I sort of have a philosophy that things happen for a reason. It is something that I have written about a few times before.

It is a bit of an airy fairy philosophy I admit, but it isn't really based on any particular belief in fate, but more just based on what I have experienced. In my life experience most bad things have led to good things in the long term, not all, but enough for me to consider it a trend.

It has occurred to me more recently that rather than being a really lucky person, the trend of good things coming from bad things perhaps comes down to attitude. It is perhaps an attribute of a willingness to look on the bright side of things and to learn from mistakes. If you look at things in that way, perhaps most bad things tend to lead to good outcomes in the end. Perhaps.

This thought occurred to me as I was going for a walk today reflecting on the events of the past 12 months in my life.

According to Facebook 12 months ago today I was racing in Vietnam. If you had sat me down in Vietnam and asked me what I thought I would be doing in 12 months, I suspect 'coaching and doing absolutely no exercise' would not have been high on my list. Funny what changes life can bring.

Looking back at my last 12 months it can be hard to think of what good things can have come from the bad things, but if I reflect a little bit more they aren't that hard to find.

As an example, I was thinking about Ironman Taiwan earlier today. This was down to be my second Ironman last October. I did lots of preparation work, traveled all the way to Penghu, spent a lot of time and money to be there, but in the end I felt sick on race day and didn't start. Like most of these decisions, it is something I have second guessed ever since. I am pretty solid in my knowledge that I wasn't 100%, but I have never been sure that a DNS was the right call.

But what I know is that if I had raced Taiwan I would not have raced Ironman WA. I raced Ironman WA purely because I hadn't raced at Taiwan. In the end Ironman WA was about as a good a race as I have ever done. If I had to choose a 'last race' Ironman WA from December would be it and that happened because I didn't race Taiwan. Pretty good up side if you ask me.

Something else that only just occurred to me about Taiwan though is that I don't actually know what would have happened if I had raced. The conditions at Taiwan were brutal, it ended up being a super tough day for everyone involved. What I now know about my heart makes me wonder how often I pushed it close to its limit. The Doctors have asked me to stop racing because they are worried I will die from sudden cardiac death. It sounds very melodramatic I know, but part of me wonders if  racing in Taiwan while sick would have pushed the heart a bit too far. Happily it is something I will never know, but if being alive is a consequence of not starting, then I am more than happy to take it. Bright side indeed.

Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, the changes I have been through in the last 12 months might be for the best too. It is pretty early days but I am quite enjoying this coaching thing and I have a growing suspicion that I am good at it too. Some interesting developments are coming due to the change from athlete to coach and if they come to fruition then it will be quite a bright side indeed. If none of these developments occur then I will still have made a transition into something I am really enjoying and I am likely to do for years to come. Hard to not see that as a good thing.