Ironman...It's A Stage on the Journey of Success

Wikipedia's definition of an Ironman: An Ironman Triathlon is one of a seried of long'distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2 mile run, raced in that order and without a break.  So is that the real definition of an IronMan?  Not in my book.  Not any longer.

I have now finished 3 different Ironman 140.6 mile races, but don't get me wrong...there really is all of the 140.6 miles within these races.   However, I no longer think of an Ironman as a very long hours and mileage event.  I thin of Ironman as a journey.  A journey that is a living testimony of my dreive to continue to be "Prepared to Live Life."

When I first finished Ironman Florida over a year ago, it was an awesome feeling.  Crossing that finish line and having my name called out by Mike Riley with these words, "Kevin Whaley, YOU are an IRONMAN."  Those feelings continue to reside within me even today.  You may asked, why do they continue to have such meaning now that you have complete 2 additional Ironmans?  Because crossing that finish was more than completing a race.  It was reaching a pinnacle of a large set of goals to bring myself back to optimal health.  The Ironman was the stage performance of all the effort, hard work, dedication, sweat, blood, tears, ups, downs, diet, up early, sacrifices, hill repeats, laps, sitting on a bike seat for hours on end, etc...  I could list so many more.  However that isn't the point.  The point is I didn't reach that finish line quickly or easily.  I reach it by understanding this was a long journey in my life.  A journey that started mentally with capturing a mindset that nothing was going to stop me.  A journey that started physically by just simply walking a mile.  

So a journey?  You bet a journey.  A journey to 'prepare to live life' and to achieve optimal health.  It was very personal to me.  Years ago I read a book called The Success Journey by John Maxwell; a great writer and motivational speaker.  There is a quote in the book that I will never forget.  Its a quote than defines success.  "Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome."  The quote is actually by Arthur Ashe, a champion tennis player and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.  I stuck this quote in my mind and lived it for many many years.  The only problem was, I only understood it to apply in business.  Was I successful?  Your bet.  However it has never meant more to me than it did when I crossed that finish line in Florida because it had been a 3 year journey of becoming healthy again.

The one thing I've yet to mention is that once I crossed that finish line, I thought of this quote and again it resonated even more at that point.  Why you ask?  It's because that finish line really wasn't a finish line.  In fact, it was just a new start line.  Yes, I had completed IM Florida.  However, that finish line only represented a new starting line because I am still on my journey.  You see to be successful, to be healthy, and to be prepared to live life one cannot look at any one thing in life as a destination.

My life has warped.  My life has transformed.  My life has repeatedly been give a new meaning, a new challenge, and a fresh perspective to see how that one quote continues to have a rebirth in my soul.  Now I'm challenged to bring this opportunity and feeling to others.  It is in fact the reason I believe so strongly in GPP.  Arthur Ashe also said, "Start with who you are, use what you have, and do what you can."  That's where everyone starts with GPP on their road to "Prepare to Live Life."


Ironman....Anything is Possible (as long as you set your mind to it and understand it's not a destination, its a Journey).

Kevin F. Whaley
aka: Shark

A Better Version of Yourself

Don't compare your results to someone else's. You can never be another person, you can only be a better version of yourself. - Unknown

More true words have never been spoken.  Comparing yourself is the easy way to convince oneself that you can never achieve anything that others have or better yet, become a better version of yourself.  In short, you can never measure up.   O' so so not true.  

4+ years ago I felt the exact say way.  I was overweight and very unhealthy.  I had just convinced myself I had past my prime and could never return to the health I had experienced before.  I thought, no way its way to much work to 'get lost' and find 'me' again.  Well, I was right...but hold on as I almost got you.  

Here is what I was right about.  It would take much work.  Much work it did.  Dieting, working out, learning about food in every way, stress control, rest, being truthful to myself, and caring enough about myself to be honest with my doctor.  O' did I mention learning about what was going in my body...as you would not believe what kind of crap was going into this body.  Ever read the ingredients label on a hot pocket?  If not, do it now!!!  What is all the junk?  I tell you what it isn't.  It isn't anything you need to put into the human machine.   Boy I could go on and on right now about food, but I will save that for a specific blog in the future.

Kevin Completing Ironman Florida 2012

So back to being a better version of yourself.  I want you to know those are strong words to live by.  Once I learned to apply these, I quit caring how I stacked up to others.  What I did learn was how to stack myself up against me and the better me I wanted to be.  Once I started to apply this everyday I started becoming a better version of myself.  I started to like myself again.  I started to see results.  I started to find the real me within the person I had become.  By only comparing "ME" to the person I was the day before, did I begin to Get Lost.  Get lost from the old me that wasn't really even me and become the me that was me all along...What?  Confused?  Don't be its just the way I have learned that if I Prepare to Live Life then I can learn to laugh at myself.  I'm only comparing the past me here in the present as I've take myself back to the future where "I am a better version of myself"!!!

So Get Lost...Prepare to Live Life...In a better version of YOURSELF!!!

Get Lost

Well how many times have you possibly heard this phrase throughout you life.  Most of the time its that someone wants something to go away.  Well let me give you a new perspective on how I've taken that phrase and applied it to a new beginning.

You see I was a very unhealthly overweight man than was often iritable and didn't seem to find the energy to do but one thing...eat.  And nothing was off the menu. Well, this life style eventually caught up with me and turns out, it was killing me fast.  I was within months of becoming a diabetic.  My body had lost its ability to regulate its own fluids.  Doc wanted me to have lap-band surgery.  Thought about it.  Yep just about that long as I had finally reached a very low point in my health and hearing lap-band seemed to say to me; well thats it you failed.  However, Kevin does not fail.  Kevin finds a way.  Kevin was reawakened right at that moment.  I said "Doc, test me for anything and everything that could be affecting my health medically".  You figure that out, I will handle the emotional and physical needs".  Well Doc did his part and put me under corrective care to address those issues.  I went at my part like a wild bull in a china cabinet.  I left no stone unturned as I rearranged everything in my life, and put the first foot forward.  1st thing, Zero sodas....and still not a single soda going on 4 years.  Next was just to get me moving.  Walking with a weight vest just a 1/4 mile.  On a bike and had to push it up a hill.  I think I could do maybe 3 pushups.  Well I was determined to get lost from that person I was hiding within and step out to prepare to live my real life.  The life I had forgotten about but so loved.  I had been a hibernating athlete and within just a few month of me getting lost, the athlete within began to emerge.  From that point it became 150% go time.

I have completed so many events that now I get lost in what all those were.  But in a nut shell, I went from a couch potato boarderline Diabetic in June 2010 to riding in a 150 mile bike event in October.  Then raced my first half marathon in December.  Then another in February.  Then my 1st Marathon in March.  That brought me to my first triathlon in June 2011 and from there I've been liven life with passion all the way through a Full Ironman.

All this was a spring forward and a change in career plus a passion to give others what I got...Prepared to Live Life!!!  Now at GPPfitNWA, GPPendurance, GPPkids we are doing just that.  Because I Got Lost, the real me was able to step out and Prepare to Live Life like we should all aspire!!!  Follow and go with me on my journey of Prepare to Live Life....

Follow me on my Facebook page...Pictures are truth!!!

*The Weights symbolize the amount of Fat I lost 135lbs