Heartbreak Hill

On this hill, in 1936, defending Boston Marathon champion John Kelley overtook “Tarzan” Brown, patting him on the shoulder as he passed. This gesture annoyed Brown, who rallied, pulled ahead of Kelley, and went on to win—breaking Kelley's heart. And the term“Heartbreak Hill” was coined.

I love this story. Not because it’s famous, because it’s not. Mostly the name remains, but the story is mostly forgotten. Or if people know it, they don’t care. But to me, it illustrates something perfectly:
The motivational power of assholes.

Motivation like that is rare… and it’s awesome. It’s terrible in the moment. It gets you angry, it riles you up. And just like that, your fatigue isn’t so bad. Your legs don’t hurt so much. You can keep that pace because “Fuck you, if he can do it, so can I”. And you can. You will. You do. Nothing changed, except your attitude.

The problem with this is that it’s not easy to tap into it. It has to be genuine asshole behavior to invoke the ‘asshole response’. And luckily (for society’s sake), most people are generally nice and polite. And if you try to provoke that kind of thing, well, then you’re the asshole. (Though to be fair, it would probably work anyway… although other people will be using you as their own personal motivator).

Which is why I was quite happy when some of this motivation just dropped into my lap the other day. I was discussing an upcoming race with a gym buddy. He was talking about trying to get a podium finish in it. I was talking about maybe running the short course with my son and a few friends instead of the longer, more competitive heat. But when I told him that I had placed 5^th last year in that heat, his response was: “Oh, well, if you can do it...”

And there we have it folks. All the asshole motivation I need. It’s childish. It’s petty. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. But the gauntlet has been thrown. And I’m going to respond. I can talk about how the course plays to my strengths, how my endurance will play into things, how my planned training for next year will make me better than ever for this race. But, in reality, it comes down to this:

You have no chance. I am going to crush you. Because “if I can do it”, then I’m going to do it. Again.

Asshole.

And then after our post-race beer together, I’ll celebrate by running the short course with my family and friends. No hard feelings 😉