Do You Have a Contingency Plan?

I was recently asked by Becca Jackson, Social Media Director for Wattie Ink. Sports, to contribute a blog post for TriCalifornia. With no parameters, here is what I came up with. It is a topic I have been brainstorming for some time, so I was glad to be given an opportunity to finally create it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. 

As with most events in life, you can’t dwell on what goes wrong. You have to focus on what you can control, moving forward.

I find the above statement accurate in both my professional career AND in my triathlon “career”. By profession, I an 11 year veteran of the Fairfax County (VA) Fire and Rescue Department and a Lieutenant assigned to a busy Ladder Company. When not responding to emergencies, I train and race as a member of the 2013 Wattie Ink. Elite Team.

Firefighters are called daily, to help resolve or diffuse a citizen’s emergency in their time of need. The emergencies can be anything, ranging from structure fires to lockouts and medical emergencies ranging from cardiac arrest to a toothache. Although first responders train regularly to mitigate an emergency, there are often times when an event occurs on an emergency scene, causing the responders to “call an audible” and change their tactics. When responding to a fire, it is not unheard of to find an automobile parked in front of a fire hydrant, rendering it useless. At a structure fire, a piece of burning debris could fall and burn through a fire hose. The possibility of events that can and do go wrong at emergency scenes are infinite. The emergency scene is a dynamic event and rarely occurs exactly as responders plan or exactly like a textbook describes. What makes a good firefighter better is their ability to be fluid and change as the incident changes, not dwelling on what has gone wrong, but more on how can we fix the problem and move on to better meet the end goal.

I can easily relate the above scenarios to racing a triathlon, specifically the 70.3 or the 140.6 distance. Athletes can be on the course for a long time, from just under four hours for the top professionals in a 70.3 mile race to just under seventeen hours for the final AG finishers in a 140.6 mile race. Most athletes, in the weeks before a race, develop their race plan. A typical race plan outlines everything from wake up time to nutrition to transportation to race site preparation. As an athlete, I play every detail out in my brain, prior to a race. As an Officer in the Fire Department, I am tasked with making initial tactical decisions, playing out how my company will respond to different types of emergency incidents. Firefighters train for different scenarios and the sport of triathlon is no different.

What if the race start time is delayed? How will you modify your nutrition plan?

Have you planned in advance for adverse conditions (extreme cold/heat, rain or wind)?

How will you respond if your goggles are kicked off at the swim start?

If your nutrition is ejected off your bike, do you know approximately where the aid stations are on the course and will your stomach tolerate the on-course nutrition? What if you have a flat tire or wreck on the bike?

What if you are issued a penalty?

What if you start to bonk on the run?

It is almost impossible to improvise during a race. Switching to a “plan B” without a solid race plan AND backup plan in mind is extremely difficult. It is the mentally strong racer who is able to “recover” from a possibly harmful event and move forward, making the best out of the remainder of the race. If you dwell on the event that has occurred for too long, it will keep you from achieving your final goal.

Will you work through the above scenarios in your head as part of your race plan? What is your contingency plan? How will you respond to a change in race day tactics? Will you put the fire out and find your place on the podium?