“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it”

I read a quote in my daytimer this morning when I woke up that says “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it”. I have been sitting here sipping my coffee looking over the dark ocean, as the sun has yet to rise, thinking about that meaty quote. Some dude named Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe has now taken my morning hostage as I run the concept around in my grape for awhile. I have been thinking about talent, ones path, happiness vs. unhappiness a lot lately. I have an entire blog in the future to write about this one as I was heavily influenced by a documentary I watched last Sunday, Rush: beyond the lighted stage. It is a wonderful documentary about my personal favorite band of all time, but there is so much more about this amazing Canadian trio and their journey over the course of the bands history. Like I said, this one is a whole blog in itself after the race, but it comes down to the same principal to which Goethe speaks- using your talent to find your greatest happiness.

So Friday in Kona was just wonderful after arriving late Thursday night. T and I swam together in the ocean and I swam the entire course to just loosen up and settle in to being in Kona. The currents were sporty and I ended up taking the long route. It was nice of a kayaker to come all the way out to see if I knew where the hell I was going. I joked to the gal that now we know why my swim splits here are always terrible. It is not only because I am slow, but I am challenged at navigating as well. That is a tough combo to overcome! She laughed; we talked about the weather, the changes in Kailua in the last few years, the remodel of the King Kam hotel and other sundries. I then decided that even though I am a sailor and built to go to sea, staying closer to the shore might be a better call. At the turnaround buoy I stopped and said hello to a guy just resting at the half way mark. He was from Austria. He was keen to speak English to me and we had a nice chat. This was his first Kona and I could tell he was ecstatic and scared to death all the same time. He was a wonderful dude. I wished him well and swam in to shore.

There is something so free about swimming in the ocean. It is easily one of the most enjoyable things I get the chance to do in my life. I spent some time as a boy living on a lake in Arkansas and had unlimited access to swimming in that lake. At 11 years old, I used to launch out solo and swim all the way across the lake and back. It was probably a 3k swim or so and I used to love to just find a tree on the other side of the lake and swim for it. I would climb up on the brick wall on the other side, do a Tarzan yell and dive back in and swim back. I remember I used to feel like I had really done something when I would get back. When I was that age, I was a tiny kid. Scrawny and small, completely unsure of just about everything, but when I was slicing through that water, I was free, powerful, and as happy as I ever need to be. Thirty four years later, I feel exactly the same way. Maybe that is what Goethe is talking about. It is definitely something for me to think about for awhile.

The week before Ironman week is a great time to get here. The majority of the Vulcans have yet to arrive, so the town is not as crowded, it’s just more of the hard core that are here and it is wonderful. Friday afternoon, Paul got here and he and I went for a short, brisk run along Alii Drive to get our running legs back after a long day of travel. Paul and I have been buds for almost a decade and training partners for the same amount of time. We have run so many miles together over the years, literally thousands of miles. It comforts me to run next to him after all this time. Paul is a pure runner and his body sway, little foot slap he has, and his gentle laugh at just about everything I say, are so comforting to me. We no longer live right next to each other and don’t train together every single day like we used to, but it is like not a minute has passed since our last training session together. Everybody needs a closer than close bud. It is one of those gifts from God that I don’t ever take for granted.

After training, Teresa and I hit the bike shop to get the necessary race stuff and replace a few items that the TSA stole out of my bike box. One quick word on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and then I won’t touch it again. The TSA and I do not get along. The TSA gets to me because it is a group of folks that operate in a mode where there is no thought or reasoning involved in their search process. They might as well be robots. The only problem is they are operating off of strict rules, yet they all don’t know the rules. So here you have folks that won’t think, won’t reason, and don’t adhere to their own rules because they don’t completely know them. They hate guys like me who actually know that there is a website called www.tsa.gov and you can read the instructions for yourself. God help you if you point it out to them. I would have to say in full disclosure that I went to grad school with two TSA executives. Both were extremely intelligent and wonderful people. It is a problem downstream. I wouldn’t mind, but they never put my bike box back together right and my bike has scratches to prove it. They take stuff the regulations allow me to bring, yet you can’t debate them about it because nothing is more powerful than a knucklehead with a badge. I’m over it…not really, but I’m done blogging about it. Add it to the reasons why I drink!

So this quick little story about the bike shop and then I will go train. We go into the bike shop. We are there at least two hours. Teresa tries on just about everything, involves every single employee in her search for the perfect whatever it is she is looking for, puts everything back or returns it days later, asks everyone’s opinion on just about everything and then once they are all completely exhausted…leaves! She just kills me. I find it the funniest thing. T just has no problem involving employees in her shopping experience. As we are driving away I ask her if maybe she drives all those folks crazy. “Oh no, sweetie. They ALL know me in there!” You bet your bippy they all know her! Splits me in two. I crack up laughing just thinking about some of the shit she does. It is one of the thousand things I love about her and why she is my partner for life.

Well, the sun is up, I am properly caffeinated, and the princess has awakened and is ready to train, so out the door we go!

Thanks for reading.

Shaka,

Jonser