Being on Time - A Lesson Not Soon Forgotten

"There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late."

Og Mandino

So I know my posts don’t flow from the tips of my fingers as my other Mudda Bruddas, but I’d like to think, as you can imagine, that what I lack in volume I make up for in quality. Like I said – at least I’d like to think that. Brian and I did our regularly scheduled Wednesday run – a good solid under 10 minute per mile pace for our 7 miles – and I was talking about all the great posts that never were. And then came the idea – why not do a post regarding all the good ideas for posts that I have had over the past 6 months or so but never got off my butt too put down on paper. That is a pretty funny idea. Not sure Brian or Pat would agree with my unrecorded genius but some of that was pretty good. So good that I can’t even really remember what today’s good idea was. Now that is good.

But it did get me thinking and reflecting on an earlier post that I had written – the one where I posed the question of what Mudder are you training for in life.  If you are anything like me, there was very little that was going to get me off the couch to set a new goal. I was fairly happy with my sedate life style. I was fat, ignorant, and happy. Nothing like a challenge to get you up off the couch but a challenge from people you respect – you both can guess who I am referring too here (Enter Name Here: _____________________)

I learned something important in Miami that I have been reflecting on since Miami. It is a small thing but I think important especially in regards to leadership. Be Freakin’ On Time!!! There is nothing that can completely get your day off to a wrong start, lose a little credibility in the eyes of those who look up to you as a leader, or simply cause more problems than not being on time.

Now I know that with different cultures we have all types of different definitions of time. My wife and I spent a year in The Gambia, West Africa and there time has a whole new meaning. We used to get quite upset when others were not as punctual as we were too meetings. If there is anything that we Americans can do is schedule a dang-on (I used the word dang-on) meeting. We took it personally when others were late. No sense of urgency! Lack of commitment! Blah, blah, blah…The thing we didn’t know is that we were using the wrong clocks. In West Africa there is a whole different sense of time. In The Gambia they do this thing that we have lost a little – yeah they stop and talk to one another. We quickly learned that it was no sense of disrespect that individuals were late. They simply met family and/or friends along the way and stopped to great them. In the general culture of The Gambia to not stop and greet someone is far, far worse for relationships than being late for a meeting. So it didn’t turn out that we were on time. We were simply rude in getting to the meeting. Now that is a learning curve for you.

Let me tell you what you don’t want to do. After our Saturday run in Miami, we felt great. General sourness; a few pains here and there; but all in all everything was good. Knee was good. Shoulder was good. Pat had no gaping wounds. Brian’s body wasn’t eating itself (but then again maybe it was he is looking a bit wraithish lately). We had the grand plans of taking our time to get to the course on Sunday for our Sunday run. Go at our own pace. Have a good time.

In retrospect, we were idiots. When we got there, we made more than one comment about how there wasn’t many people walking into the course. In fact, it seemed like we were the only three. We were consumed with the fact that it just wasn’t freezing like it was the day before. We saunter up. One last restroom break. As we emerge from the wonderfulness that is a Nascar speedway restroom, we are greeted with the passing comment, “Are you guys running today? I think you need to hurry they are starting to close things up?” Ahhhhhh say what. Now the sprint is on and they are in fact starting to pack up the lines where you get your numbers and such. We are the last three other than individuals milling around the food area. Now of course I race over to the Cur…line. No one’s there. Luckily another lady comes over to me for help. Looks at me like I’m and idiot, fishes my number out, and suggests that I hurry. I still faired a little better than Brian or Pat who met open resistance to getting their numbers. We sprint over to the bag drop, tying our shoes as we hop along, to just be met with other glances saying to us, “A little late are ya?”.

Through the start gate – which by the way was horribly planned in Miami. For those of you who run these Mudders you may have seen a course where you have to climb a miniature Berlin wall to get in to the starting area. What they did here was start you out about 30 yards from the wall, make you turn a corner and then climb the mini-me of Berlin walls. That would have been find of course but there were others, those who had never run a race, who mistakenly thought the race had begun. Luckily Brian walked ahead and Pat and I followed but it was like a bad stampede at a concert. People were just getting pressed into the wall as others came behind in their mad dash to the start.

There was no such greeting for us at the start way. Other than some odd stares and a little Rage Against the Machine blaring, there was no motivational talk. No Tough Mudder pledge. It was simply the three of use running through the start trying to bin on our bib numbers. Which made it a little difficult as we didn’t have enough pins in our packet to do that. Thank goodness there are so many abandoned bibs along the way.

The nice thing for us is that we caught a good bit of the field that day so we didn’t finish last. Started last but that was simply due to poor planning on our part.

So be on time. I think this is an under-rated aspect of leadership that can set the entire tone for the Mudder you are training for. When I was a teacher being late was not an option. Or not an option that I wanted to investigate at least. As a leader in education I have to remind myself that being on time is important if for no other reason than to set a good example. But on the bright side, you do get Arctic Enema all to yourself.