Lolo's legs were too low low...

As my husband and I watched Lolo throw her head into her hands after losing grasp of the gold medal a few nights ago, my husband asks, "How do you get over something like that?" I answered, "You don't."

While I've never experienced what it's like to race for an olympic gold medal, I DO know what it's like to mess up at the end of an important race. What's funny is, I made the same mistake as Lolo's.

I was in Maui where I was about to run a heat in the 100m hurdles at an invitational meet for high school. Every hurdler there dreaded the star athlete of Maui, who was also the best hurdler in the state of Hawaii. Her name was Pristine. She was tall, lanky, and had an almost olympic qualifying time of 14.6 seconds! And, if that wasn't enough to intimidate you, it was reported that she would frequently miss practices and hardly ever train. So, basically she's the quintessential star athlete with natural talent that you love to despise.

There were several heats to be run that day and who's heat do I, along with six other girls, get stuck in? That's right. We're all running with Miss Bionic Woman, Pristine.

Now, before I go further, and in order for the lay person to understand the context of what happens next, they must understand that before you run the 100 meter hurdles in an official race, there is a prep time of about two minutes. This two minutes feels like an eternity for most hurdlers. While situating your starting block in your lane, practicing a couple of "push-offs," and doing some quick calf and ham stretches, nothing but adrenaline is coursing through your body to prepare itself for the insane burst of energy it's about to undergo. It's like drinking two Red Bulls in a row and trying to stay calm! Then, you hear the warning buzzer. It's time to line up. You get into position. Two tones play, the starting pistol sounds, and then you leap into the hardest sprint of your life for the next 16-18 seconds, unless you're Pristine, or an Olympic athlete, then it's less.

Now, back to the heat we are running with Pristine. Every one of us, except for Pristine, is trying to figure out how NOT to collapse from the anxiety of running with her and shake off that feeling that she will most certainly leave us in the dust. None of us had even close to her record times, but we had practiced hard to get here from other islands and we wanted to compete, even if it meant a sure loss up against her. Focus, it's go time! We lined up for the race, the two tones play, the shot went off, aaaand...wait...another shot. Someone false-started. But who? We looked around. Sheer disbelief claimed a place on our face as we saw Pristine walk off her lane. "Are you kidding me?" is what all of us were thinking. We all had a chance to win now. We line up again, the shot goes off, we bolt towards the hurdles, my 16 year old gazelle-like legs lunge with speed, making a three-step over each hurdle... I realize I am in first... I can't believe it...I see my coach and teammates on the side screaming their heads off...I'm distracted, so nervous that I am winning...I choke on the second to last hurdle.. same hurdle Lolo choked on. Boom. 3rd place. I die. and then die some more.

So, how do you get over something like that? 13 years later, I'm telling you, "You don't!"...even if it's only for a high school trophy, and especially if it's for a gold medal in the olympics.

But what I've gleaned over the years in regards to competing is this...winning is more than what happens at the finish line, it's what happens before you even start the race. It happens when you fall or mess up repeatedly on something you've practiced for hours, but you keep getting back up and try again. It happens when you train in the rain just as hard as you would when it's dry. It happens when you're exhausted but sprint to the finish. It happens when you give your all to something. As cheesy as that may sound, it's the truth. The crucial life skills that I learned as an athlete such as self-discipline, dedication, focus, humility, patience, and courage transcend sports entirely. And that's worth more than a gold medal.



**The pics in this post are not from the same races discussed.