Leadership, Sweat, and a Facebook Marketplace Bike

When I started my LSP class in January of 2024, I was a HIIT gym FIEND. Anything that had me wishing for death in an un-airconditioned gym sounded fun, bonus points if I could do it alone with no one else around.

That changed once class began. I met Andre Taylor, Lauren Colson, and Lokesh Vale, all of whom were totally different from me in many ways. However, we all had one thing in common, outside of a love for LSP and St Pete: we wanted to celebrate Andre turning 53. Now, this man has a birthday tradition where he trains to complete a new physical feat in the months leading up to it. Prior examples include benching 300lb, cycling 100 miles, and training for a marathon. This time, the 3 in 53 spoke to him, and he decided on a sprint triathlon. Easy enough, right? I ran a marathon at the start of class, so chucking some cycling and swimming into the mix should be easy, yeah? Nope. Not even close.

Turns out, swimming more than the width of your average suburban pool requires a bit of sustained effort, and cycling on a borrowed bike wasn’t going to cut the mustard. So, I signed up at the local Y to take advantage of their pool, and spent $110 on Facebook marketplace - $100 for a road bike, and $10 on a bright orange crash helmet (designed for skateboarding, as I later learned).

And that, as they say, was it. I was, and am, officially hooked. Since Andre’s birthday (where we all completed the aforementioned sprint triathlon), I’ve gone on to do Olympic and International distances, and have since graduated to completing two half Ironman races. In November – less than 2 years after agreeing casually to celebrate one of my closest friends in an unusual manner, I will line up at the start of my first full Ironman race in Panama City, Florida. That’s 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling, and 26.2 miles of running. 140.6 miles in total, for those bad at math. And I still train and workout alongside those same friends, when we can find time.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it’s a fantastic metaphor for leadership, wrapped up in a silly dalliance:

1. Do the weird thing because you’ve never done it before: to butcher a great proverb, ships are safe in harbors, but harbors aren’t what ships are made for. Getting out of my comfort zone absolutely forced me to grow, not just physically, but also as a friend amongst comrades, all sweating it out for the same reason. And in doing something I’d never done before, I discovered a hobby and passion that I didn’t know existed. In my discomfort with the unknown, I quite literally stumbled upon joy.
2. Executing a half-baked plan beats waiting for the perfect moment / condition / reason: it’s easy to pivot, refine and re-do something once you have a bit of experience under your belt, because you have momentum on your side. I now ride a proper, built-for-this bike and have a plethora of other equipment to go the (Ironman) distance. But if you’d told me I needed all of that to start out on a joyride with my mates, I would’ve balked and returned to my humid HIIT locker, alone. Refinement is an incremental process, getting started is not. And getting started is what matters.
3. Supporting others creates our own support crew: I started this endeavor to see someone else reach a goal because I wanted to show up for Ander and, if I’m honest, raise a well-deserved pint for him on his birthday. But actually? I ended up forming a bond with one of my biggest supporters, who has shown up for nearly all my races, including driving 2 hours to watch me at my first half Ironman. All because I wanted to see him hit a milestone on his birthday. That kind of love and friendship is hard to cultivate, especially as an adult, and I cherish it for all it’s worth.

Without LSP, I never would have crossed paths with some of my favorite people, and I never would have discovered a sport I am so incredibly passionate about. I walked into the program expecting the formal sessions around leadership to be where the bulk of my learning would take place. While I absolutely gleaned a lot from the classroom side, it’s been the learning-through-doing part that has made the greatest impression on me. Everyone takes something different from their LSP experience, but it’s what you discover you’re willing to put in the hours for, and the people who make it worthwhile, that truly matter.

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