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Joe Buckley's Journal
Competition
posted by at 05:17 AM on October 07, 2008
Whether or not you admit it to yourself, there is a competitor in all of us. Some of us are worse than others, but deep down inside everyone has something in them that makes them want to be better than others. It can even be something as simple as the desire to bake the best tasting apple pie. I guess it all depends on how close you let that competitive side of yourself get to the surface. Some people have no problem burying that competitive spirit, while others have absolutely no control over it.
In my case, the competitive bug likes to float just slightly below the surface (or at least that’s what I like to think). It all started when I began riding bikes as a kid. At the time I didn’t realize it, but when I saw someone riding up ahead of me, my knee jerk reaction was to pedal harder so I could catch up to, and pass this person. After passing (assuming I could catch them), the next step was to pedal even harder to put as much distance as I could between them and myself. Since those days, things have only gotten worse. It’s hard for me to do a completely casual ride these days, as my mind just pushes the body harder, until I’m physically at a very uncomfortable level of effort, yet this is where my mind is content to be. Mentally, it is much harder to slow down and go easy. About a year and a half ago, I started going to Crossfit, which is a very intense style of workout that uses competition as a way to keep the workout intensity extremely high. Without going into too much boring detail, I will use a quote from the late Col Jeff Cooper which was printed in an early issue of the Crossfit Journal. It was his observation that, “the fear of sporting failure is worse than the fear of death.” Each workout we do is either timed or scored based on reps of various movements. So every time I go to the gym, I’m competing against others I’m working out with, and I love it. It feels good to push hard and finish before others. Sometimes when I walk into a class, I look around and pick out the people I’m going to beat. I’ll be the first to admit, this is totally out of control. It doesn’t always work out that I beat them, which is kind of a let down, but whatever, you can’t win all the time. One of my favorite scenarios is when I show up for a workout, a ride, or hell, just about anything, and one or more people obviously think I’m the chump that will be easily beaten. These are the people I love to compete against the most! If I lose (doesn’t matter if we’re even really competing, I personally count it as losing), then this person goes on my list of people to beat in the future, but when I beat the cocky guys who make assumptions, it feels so damn good. Which is absolutely hilarious, since I’m acting just as silly as them, the only difference is I’m just being inwardly cocky.
Some who read this will think I’m screwed up in the head, and yeah, you’re probably right, but I sure as hell ain’t the only one out there. I work with a couple of women who are almost as bad as I am. I’ve even heard Eron Chorney (head of our Designs for Women department) openly curse herself for “competing” in our casual mountain bike rides. Brandon Sloan, who happens to be my boss, and also loves competition, has a favorite stunt that he’s used on many fellow riders, including Eron and I. He waits until he knows we’re close to our maximum amount of output, and then thinks up and asks us a question that you feel compelled to answer. Of course, as soon as you talk, your suffering just increases because mentally, you’re not about to back down and have the rest of the group ride away from you. By now I’m pretty immune to it, but I do get to see him practice this trick others now and then, and enjoy watching them suffer.
My loving wife is another one who loves competition. Even though she’s much nicer than I, and not as compelled to compete against others, one of her favorite things to do is kick me when I’m down (so to speak). Maybe its because I’m too cocky or something, but she knows when I’ve been exercising too much in a week, and am extremely worn down, and this is when she chooses to strike. She’ll go out on a ride with me, and just lay the hammer down on the climbs, to the point that I can’t keep up. On a couple occasions, she puts a big gap on me at the start of a long climb, and then sets it on cruise control. The couple of times where I’ve actually had enough strength to start catching back up, I’ll get within 20ft of her, upon which she discovers me, let’s out a loud shriek, and drops me again like a bad habit. It’s actually pretty cool that the people I work and hang out with are also competitive. They may not have competitive issues like I do, but it makes for fun times, and lots of trash talking ammunition.
Ok, so these are pretty normal examples of sporting competition, but there are all kinds of ways other people compete that have nothing to do with sports. One of them I personally witness on my way to work every day. You see, I normally commute in a sweet ’93 Toyota pickup, which has over 200K miles on it, and 4 wheels that were once chrome plated but now look rusty enough to have sunk with the Titanic. To round out the nice looks is an awesome blue flame on the passenger side that my buddy Alain constructed of blue masking tape. To most people, the truck is kinda hideous, or even comical, but I think it fits my personality (not much to look at, yet ready to perform!). Anyway, what I’ve noticed while commuting is that people cannot stand to be passed by my hideous looking rig. At first I thought it might just be me, but my wife regularly claims the same thing when she’s driving! It doesn’t matter who I’m passing, people cannot stand it, and suddenly I’m trying to get around Mario Andretti. I can be passing an 80 year old, a soccer mom, a van full of migrant workers, or even a priest. There is just something about my truck that brings out the die hard competitor in everyone!!!
Another common competitor is the person who competes by having the latest and greatest gizmo. We all have friends like this. Usually, they are the type who like to bag on people like me who drive around in old vehicles. These people love to enjoy the latest technology has to offer, and they like to get it before anyone else can. Why the hell do you think people were lining up like crazy to pay an obscene amount for the original Iphone a short time ago? Nowadays you can get the same thing for half the price, and without the wait. I like to call these people the “keeping up with the Joneses” competitors. Of course, some people just like to get nice stuff, but there are plenty others who love to not only get it, but also love to flaunt it to their friends or anyone else who’ll pay attention.
In a similar fashion (pardon the bad pun) to the material competitors mentioned above, there are plenty of people out there who want to look better than anyone else. This is something I can appreciate, because in the same manner that I love to beat someone to the top of the hill, it takes a hell of a lot of effort to clean yourself up and look better than others. There’s all that showering, tanning, plucking, picking out good looking clothing, and hair styling to deal with. All this so that when they walk into a room, they can confidently look around and inwardly laugh at how bad everyone looks compared to them. Not sure I personally know many people like this, but we’ve all seen them on reality television shows. Well, there is this one guy I know, his nickname is Beautiful, because he works so hard at looking so damn good all the time. But he’s so funny that he gets away with it. I think you get the point though, some people just love to look good (and who can blame them).
There are many other types of competitors out in the world, the examples above are just a short list. If there weren’t, ESPN wouldn’t have an infinite amount of competitions to choose from when it comes to programming. From worlds strongest man, to hot dog eating contests, there is something somewhere that you want to beat others at. Maybe you know someone else with a competition problem? dare to comment below on what it is they love to beat others at…
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