The Lioness

I saw this short clip of Lauren Fleshman following her success of getting to the finals in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 5000m. She is over the moon with reaching the finals. She had been injured for months with ITB syndrome. As you'll see in her interview, she trained almost exclusively with swimming and elliptical. As the months ticked off, she was not much closer to being ready for the olympic trials. She could sprint but not run. Prior to the event, she had run no more than 2 miles consecutively. She got to the start line on 10 miles of running a week. With an opportunity to run at the Olympics, at 30 years old, she would attempt the impossible. She had to step up to the line in a high-profile event, and believe it was possible to outrun her highly trained compatriots to earn a berth at the Olympic games.


Lauren Fleshman-US Olympic trials 5000m

At the very end of the interview (this is the short version), she mentions the lion. She visualizes the face of a beautiful healthy lion to represent courage. In the final 200m sprint to the line, every cell in her body is screaming for her to stop. Her mind has to override the instinctual safety mechanisms that make us slow down. She needs a powerful mental force to continue to push the pace and run even harder. The visualization allows her to replace the inner voices reminding her that she has trained a fraction of what the other women have done, she has not run more than 2 miles in a stretch, she hasn't raced since the year prior. She sees the lion. She is the lion. She has the courage of a lion. She reaches the line to make the final for the 5000m Olympic trials. The lion will be summoned again at the final, to earn her Olympic berth.

OK...so I'm not going to the Olympics. I race as an age-group athlete, admiring the professional triathletes from afar. But whether you are first or last, your body and mind still try and convince you to stop the discomfort, stop running, stop moving, have a beer!

I raced at the Desert Half Ironman in July this year, just after watching this clip. I had thought of the lion a great deal, but the concept needed just a little tweaking for me. In my visualization, I had a lioness leading my way. The lioness is the mother and the hunter. She is smart, savvy, self-controlled, and powerful beyond measure. The lioness was with me much of that race. In my mind she would pad ahead of me at a trot, and look back over her shoulder straight into my eyes. There are so many choices to make during a long race. I would make a decision about fuelling or pace, and she would simply support me in my decision. Her encouragement came in the form of a strong a confident nudge, "good. move on." She didn't allow me to dwell on things too long. She allowed me to enjoy the race without self-doubt and distracting thoughts. At one point she moved from her trot to a flat out run, and she was amazing. I love that she can be calm and calculating, but also fierce and powerful.

The lioness has been with me briefly a few more times in hard training sessions. She had me laughing out loud on one occasion. I was swimming with my friend Kara in the lake, and the wind kicked up. I was having trouble getting a breath as the waves curled over my head. I felt a tad scared, but knew deep down that I was not in trouble. I tried to summon the lioness to support me. She appeared in a haze, and I couldn't quite see her eyes like I usually do. Her message was something along the lines of "Um no....you don't need me." She was chastising me for summoning her for something trivial, that didn't require her immense power. Apparently I'm not to waste her time.