Triathlon and Winners’ Psychology

Nothing can substitute real life experiences.  I was called in by my sister who told me that my mother was vomiting a “black stuff.”  She is a 94 years old.  I said: “It is an emergency…there is a gastroenterologist next door, call him while I get there.”  She got an endoscopy next day, she had a gastric ulcer but it does not appear that it was the cause of how bad she looked, it was a consequence to me.  IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE THE PATIENT IS DEAD.  The same things for winning in triathlon, if you do no clock you progress you are lying to yourself, and the chances of winning are null.  Believing what we see is the first step.

Planning after believing what we see is the following step.  Here, we can have a good plan or a bad plan but either one of them could be useful if we describe and follow step by step how to achieve goals.  I decided to go with the gastroenterologist who told me to contact the doctor in certain hospital where he was going to do the endoscopy.  In Mexico, most of the doctors are useless, not just from the point of view of what they do; they are unable to play in a team.  In our town, we do not have transplants because we are unable to put together, in a team, a bunch of doctor who could do it (renal transplants have been around for decades in the world). When we decided to do a surgery, the gastroenterologist decided to move out of the care and I was left with an internist and a surgeon who said he was busy to do the surgery in the next 24 hrs.  I contacted, in a hurry, a surgeon who could have the privileges in the hospital.  I was not able to take mom someplace else at this time and I was left with supervising what they were doing the best I could.  In a strange move, I was left out of the surgery; I did not make waves because I put the surgeon in and I was desperately trying to make a team work.  I ACCEPTED WHAT THEY TOLD ME.  It was a nightmare.  Planning training in triathlon means to practice cadence vs low cadence while training cycling; reps at high speed vs long pacings that last more than five minutes when running, as well as high cadence vs low cadence jumping while running; decreasing strokes when swimming vs poor technique but speed for the moment to get certain speed to be in the second or third pack.  In triathlon, there is a chance to plan what follows, very different from a medical emergency.

The decision of which road to take depends on the state of knowledge of the individual.  I knew I was just supervising, something I did with residents as a Chief Resident but this was different; my mom was dying.  I played as a Chief Resident overviewing what they were doing.  My mom came back home but three days later she started to deteriorate -they did not put a drainage after surgery assuming they resolved the problem by liberating gut (it was trapped because of the edema).  I changed the game at this time.  I needed a team to be able to do our best this time, only chance.  I called a friend (surgeon) who went to Medical School with me; I presented the case to him.  He said: “I need to see the patient before making a decision.”  He came home (my mother´s) and reviewed the case:  “I need a team all the way to do something.”  Then I knew we were in the game.  He said: “I’ll call a few doctors (it was Sunday), she needs surgery and we will do it in two hour:  We need to do an abdominal surgery again.” 94-years-old, with mild heart failure and problems to keep a good oxygen saturation, adding sepsis to it.  The last chance for Rachel.  I asked to her about it and she said: “Go for it.”  The surgeon and I were left after the surgery, in addition to one nurse; the only medical team committed to Rachel.  Commitment to improve is the requirement in triathlon; athletes need to be students of their sport, experts in physiology, nutrition and administration.  This is the way to avoid falling into a trap.  Little knowledge is dangerous, just like the doctors in Mexico.

The surgeon who performed the last surgery wanted Rachel to improve because he likes winning; the other were just playing medicine.  The decision made changed the outcome of Rachel. It was made on solid basis of how life works, something that every athlete should know. Do we want to win or just “play triathlon?”