Resilience Is Revealed When Things Go Wrong
This past weekend was the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, and watching it took me back to my own race there in 2023. What struck me most was how differently I see that day now than I did when I crossed the finish line.
My day at Kona wasn’t an ideal one. Shortly into the 112-mile bike, I became extremely nauseous. Dry heaving made it nearly impossible to follow my nutrition plan, and as the hours passed, I became genuinely worried about whether I could finish a race that is grueling even on a good day. The nausea eased slightly on the run, but I was still taking in only a fraction of the fuel I needed. It became my slowest IRONMAN ever.
When talking about my race, I felt obligated to explain why my time was so slow, instead of simply owning the fact that I had qualified for this iconic race and overcome every challenge in my way to cross the finish line and hear those magical words: “You are an IRONMAN!”
Now, looking back, I’m incredibly proud of that race. Not because of my time, but because I faced unexpected adversity, adjusted my expectations, kept problem-solving, and found a way to finish.
On Saturday, as I watched the pro race unfold, I was fascinated by each athlete’s challenges and how they leveraged their mental resilience to respond to the day. Two stood out to me: Solveig Løvseth and Matthew Marquardt. Both are certainly physically gifted, but it’s their mental strength I admire most.
With less than a mile to go to an outright win, Solveig’s body revolted. She collapsed to the ground multiple times, and each time she got back up, pushing herself to just walk. Did she win? No. But through her mental resilience, she kept moving one foot in front of the other. With about half a mile to go, she was smiling, talking with people around her, and high-fiving spectators as she walked down the red carpet and crossed the finish line, rightfully proud of her accomplishment.
Sometimes resilience means accepting that the original goal is gone and finding a new definition of success.
Matthew Marquardt’s story is a little different. After spending much of the swim and bike at or near the front, he received a penalty on the bike. He could have let frustration consume him. Instead, he used the time to regroup, hydrate, adjust his shoes and loosen his back. Then he went right back to work, steadily climbing back up through the field. On the run, he was focused but calm, working his way to a third-place finish. What stood out to me wasn’t simply the comeback. It was his composure. He couldn’t change what had happened, so he focused his energy on what he could still control.
Sometimes resilience is refusing to let one bad moment determine what happens next.
I recognize these specific challenges are not ones most people will experience. But all of us will have days when the plan falls apart. Resilience isn’t necessarily accomplishing what you intended. Sometimes it’s adjusting your definition of success when circumstances change.
The time on the clock eventually becomes a detail. How you responded when things went wrong is the part you’ll remember.