In addition to bringing people together through a rare scientific phenomenon, the eclipse highlighted something else. I heard so many people say something like this…”if I had been thinking ahead I would have X, Y, Z. I would have planned a trip around the totality zone..I would have got glasses for my kids….I would have taken the kids to the beach/mountains….I would have…”
I heard about this eclipse coming for a very long time. Kinda’ like Christmas. It wasn’t a surprise to me. How was this a surprise to anyone?? Especially to anyone fairly close to the totality zone. Here in Raleigh we were at 94%, but we could easily drive to the 99% zone – which is what my husband did and took this picture. Now, I get that it was weather dependent. If there had been rain or storm clouds, it would have been pointless and a total bust. So there’s risk with planning a big trip for something that might not happen. I get it. But isn’t that true with most anything? a beach trip, a camping trip, a trip where it could snow, a trip in hurricane season, a trip when the kids could get sick, on & on.
But that’s not really the point, the weather. The point is that so many people were in the “if I had known” mindset. Planning is so intuitive to me, it’s hard to imagine that I wouldn’t see this coming! Which brings me to the connection between triathlon & the eclipse. Knowing a big event is coming – like a triathlon or eclipse – requires planning, even if it’s just a little bit. Even with news & media shouting about it – IT’S COMING, IT’S COMING – we still dismiss it and say “meh…whatever, no big deal” ……………until it’s over.
Then we feel like this: crap, we should have made a plan to see it! we should have made a plan to finish the triathlon! we should have ridden that bike, committed to swimming, practice, leaned into the discomfort, embraced the burn in my legs…because the pain of regret really sucks. The rub of not sticking to the commitment is embarrassing. The depression of giving up on yourself is no joke. My oly distance is only a few weeks away and I’m feeling weary and really hoping I can finish without a DNF. I keep hearing that voice that says just drop back to the sprint distance, it’s ok! But I keep pushing that away. It’s loud and fierce in my head, but I will NOT step back. Only forward. And for me that means not saying the same version of “crap, I wish I had made a plan to see the eclipse.”
CHANDRA GREEN 