I heard about the SEAL team when I was in high school.
There was a guy that was a friend of my brothers,
he's kind of a mentor and he joined the Navy and, you know,
I looked up to that guy. He would come home on leave every now and then
and tell me, you know, all the exciting things he'd been doing
and and he was a SEAL. I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world.
Right when you get to BUDS to be a SEAL, one of the first things you see
is this this round sign that says "The only easy day was yesterday,"
which really paints the picture of every day in training is so hard that,
you know, it it's it's pretty clear the only easy day was yesterday.
But going through that training gave me the confidence to make it through.
A lot of guys say you're at the tip of the spear, you know. We're at the very front
of this thing, driving in whatever direction we're going, so I'm,
you know, really really fortunate to be a part of that.
I want to enjoy life every minute. I mean, when I get up in the morning, you know,
I want to go. I want to get out there and live my life. I'm in that process right now
looking at where am I going to go next. You know, I tell, hey, I'm ready, you know,
I just did an Ironman. I'm ready to put the gear on and and hit it again.
I'll use another race or a smaller race to implement a training day of all those events.
Ah, or some of us will get get together, we'll do like a 2-mile swim.
Jump out get on the bikes, do a 60-mile bike ride. And get off the bikes and do
a 10-12-mile run. And that'll be like an all-three training day but rarely will I do that,
maybe maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks.
By looking at an event I control my training, and control my diet, and control
as much as I can and when I get there then I've done what I could.
So I'm training to stay ahead of all these young guys. And to show them how
this is a lifestyle and how you can do this for so many years and still, you know,
maintain being physically harder, mentally tougher than most of these 18-19-year-old guys.
And there's nothing more exhilarating than looking back and seeing 25% of those guys are with ya
and the other guys are back, way back, because they can't keep up with
the 42-year-old Master Chief.
I want to be up there in front. I want to be in front of the pack. I want to be in the top 10
if I can be or, you know, in the top, you know, obviously I love to win. So that's why I train.
I want to be up there in the front.
I have to have something else to replace that energy and drive and ah, that level of excitement.
I'm always pursuing the kind of, pursuit of excellence. And the only thing I try to project that
towards is getting across that finish line.
As soon as I cross that finish line, I started thinking what I could have done better.
And to me that's refinement. You know, that's that's kind of how it is in whatever I do.
I feel a great sense of having a purposeful life.
I'm very, very fortunate to be a part of that.
Paul Tharp
United States Navy