If you read my previous post – Traralgon Marathon – you’ll know last weekend I picked up third place, albeit twenty odd minutes behind the winner. Besides coming home with a little trophy, I got a taste of competition again and arrived home with a sense of drive that has been missing for a while.

There’s something about that feeling when you put it on the line – when you’re in a race, right on the edge of blowing up, but so is your opponent. That feeling that you’re waiting for one another to drop back an inch. Make a mistake. Tighten up. Give in.

Somehow, it had been a while since I’d felt that. I suspect that pressure of competition sometimes got to me when I raced as a junior and later in the VIS development squad. Maybe it was the thought that future opportunities balanced on the outcome? Maybe it was just not knowing how to handle that pressure?

Perhaps those few years since then have let me appreciate how to embrace the pressure of competition. You have to want it. And back yourself.

Do you want that feeling? Maybe a taste of competition is just what you need too.