Cost To Be Paid

A few days ago I posted a video on Instagram & Facebook about the end of the 2024 DelMo Summer Racing Season coming to close. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uap0Gov3LRk&t=3s

If you chose to view the full video, you learned about the personal struggles me and my family had to adjust to during the height of our season. You learned of loss, grief, and the price that was paid to keep moving forward. The response I received from fellow athletes while walking around Bader Field at this past weekend's USAT Age Group National Championships about this video illustrated how many people are dealing with great obstacles and yet keep moving forward. If you've never read our newsletter, please take a few minutes and read the message below. It's from my heart and soul and I hope it resonates with you.

"Good morning, everybody. I took the shades off for this one so you could see it's not BS. The summer of 2024 racing season is over for us, and we move into the fall racing season.  This year, more than any other year, I have never been so scared of in my life, and I'm going to be real with you.
 
We had a brand-new team in 2024. People that have been with us for a decade, are no longer here. It’s ok, everyone is good…for the better…all parties involved. But we're a brand-new company; after doing this for 20 years and I was scared to death. 

We executed the events (perfectly). We get through MudHen, we get through Escape the Cape, we get through Bike-a-Thon, and Around the Cape. We did a music festival in Long Island in  late June, and now, here comes Women's Philly. We're getting better. We're getting tighter. We get through that event, which is a beautiful event, and then two days after as we're prepping for New Jersey State Triathlon, my best friend in all the universe, his 15-year-old son dies in a fiery car crash- and that is something no one is prepared for.  This kid was like a son to me, and for the next two weeks I was in a complete fog, a complete haze.
 
I don't know what you call it, but I checked out. I didn't check an email. I didn't do anything. Nothing. I couldn't do anything. I am clearly still affected to this day. But life doesn't stop. You've got commitments to partners, you've got commitments to athletes, you've got commitments to people that work for you, and you've got to keep going.
 
And somehow, we made it to the Atlantic City Triathlon. (Thank you, Liz and Matt, for picking up where I left off.) But whoever you saw at the Atlantic City Triathlon, that was not me. I don't even remember the event. I was just in a haze.
 
Our obligations don't stop in life. Our responsibilities don't stop. Things keep moving forward. So how do you get through all this and meet your obligations?
 
Well, there's a cost to be paid.
 
For us, that cost was no beach days with my family this year. Not one.  There were no days on my dad's boat. There were no golf days with my son that we used to go like once a week and play nine holes. There were very few family dinners that we went out to. There was nothing this summer.
 
The reason there was nothing is because we had to pick ourselves up off the ground and keep moving forward to keep all this going, to keep things running, because you just can't shut it down and that's real. And so, the cost that we paid to make it through the 2024 season, the way we did it…was tremendous.
 
This is the only thing I can say about the cost. I'll never forget the cost, and therefore, when I get to a certain point in the fall and I realized the price that we paid, I am not going to forget the price we paid. I will not forget it and that will propel me to do what I was meant to do.
 
That's it. That's the difference between people that get their dreams and those that just keep dreaming. There is a cost to be paid, whether you like it or not. No one stumbles into the Olympics. There is a cost to be paid. No one stumbles onto the big screen. There's a cost to be paid.
 
This business, just like any other business, there was (and is) a cost to be paid. So, if you're trying to get after something, and you're trying to do something special, please know that there's a cost to be paid. No matter what's going on in your life, it doesn't matter. You've got to find a way to keep moving forward.
 
That's what me, my wife and my family are doing. We're trying to find a way to keep moving forward. I know the price that was paid. I accept the price that was paid. And now I put that in my back pocket so when I'm looking at the work in front of me, there is nothing stopping me from getting it done. There will be no one more committed to what I'm going to do. There will be no one as efficient as what I'm going to do. There's no one going to be as energized doing what I do and if you don't believe that in yourself of what you're doing, then you're doing the wrong thing.
 
This is the way I feel. Recognize that there's a cost to be paid. Pay the price. Put the memory in your back pocket and get after it.