Deborah Battaglia: I Think. I Can.
Deb Battalgia believes that she’s just an ordinary human being, given the baseline of genetics without any extraordinary tendencies or talents or gifts … intellectually or physically. And yet! Here she is. Deb is an Emergency Room doctor, wired for triage and action, who flies cross-country every month to power through 12-hour shifts over a 10-day window. That’s enough to make her a bit more than “human.” Oh … And the year she turned 50, she ran 50 triathlons. Yeah. 50. The year she turned 50.
Fifty Full Distance Triathlons. 50 x 226K. That’s 50 x (2.4 miles swimming +112 miles biking + 26.2 miles running). Completed in fewer than 17 hours. FIFTY X TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX KILOMETERS. ELEVEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED KILOMETERS or SEVEN THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE AND ONE-HALF MILES. IN ONE YEAR.
Apologies for the CAPS. It’s not shouting. It’s incredulity. But it’s all in a year’s work for IronDeb.
How did she do it?
• By not setting my expectations too high.
• By setting goals for myself, seeing what the day hands me.
• By wanting to be pleased about what I’ve accomplished that day.
• By maximizing “what I have.”
• By just wanting to have the “experience.”
• By looking at every day, every swim, every bike, every run, as a training regimen for life.
It’s not about over-stating or over-promising. It’s about over-coming your own limitations — however real or self-imposed they might be.
It’s not about visualizing glory. It’s about seeing if you can set a goal and meet it.
“I’m going to go as hard as I can and see what happens. And keep doing it.” — Deb Battalgia
At some point in her life, Deb decided she’d had enough of failure.
She says, “Heck, we all fail.” Falling short on things is part and parcel of human existence. It’s a bit easier to take those failings in stride if we set some goals, do our best to attain them, recognizing when we have done so, and then allowing ourselves to declare, “I did it.”
Not wanting to accept that “50” has to mean it’s all downhill from here, she decided to “see if I could run 50 triathlons the year I turn 50.” Just see if I can do it.
“A lot of folks are about the triathlon performance. Some people get their identity from their performance. They’re essentially saying that being faster = being a better person. Not me. I could care less. I’m inspired, not by the people who finish first, but by the people at the back …who are working hard with what they have … still pushing … overcoming obstacles i may never have faced … and sticking with it until you’re done.”
She’s proclaiming: “That’s what makes me who I am. It doesn’t make me better than anyone else. It’s just me being me, wondering if I can do something, trying to do it, and hopefully, doing it.”
What’s next?
No immediate goal for year 51. But she’ll stay active, squeezing in tri’s whenever she can. No question though, she’ll be doing something physical every day. Maybe when she turns 60, she’ll tackle 60 Half Distances. Maybe when she turns 70, she’ll tackle Olympic Distances. Maybe when she turns 80, she’ll set out to do 80 Sprint distances. Who knows? But one thing we do know. She’s thought about it. She’s wondering about it, considering it. Therefore, IronDeb will likely go for it.
ADVICE? “Think about it. Start. And do it. Finally, you simply have to go do it.”
Maybe there’s a lesson here for the rest of us humans with normally-distributed genetics. A rather new spin on motivation. An insight that goes beyond, or rather before, all the chatter about effort, about “you can do it.” That new spin is that first, you have to wonder if you can do it. Before you actually set out to do it. Subtle? Yes. Illuminating? Absolutely.
The rest of us can follow Deb’s advice. Whether we’re athletes or gardeners or artists or activists.
Perhaps the thing we overlook is setting a goal in the first place. You start by deciding that you want to test yourself; define a limit and see if you can go beyond it.
Traditionally we talk about effort when we admire people who attain remarkable achievements. But the real key may be in choosing to or even wanting to set a goal. Then seeing if you can meet it. That’s more than determination. That’s self-awareness, wondering where you fit, not only in the world, but in your own life. Wondering what capacities you have, then exploring them, putting them into action.
In the world according to IronDeb, “cogito ergo sum” becomes something new, something enlightening. I Think. Therefore I Can.
Thanks Deb.
Thinking: What achievement can I set for myself today? What success will I be pleased about tonight?
Doing: Take a deep breath. Ok. Here we go.
Want to compare distances? Check out this handy infographic:
https://medium.com/@endurancematter/handy-guide-to-triathlon-distances-d297ccad321c
