Let's talk football...

If you know me, even a little bit, you'd expect me to be extremely angry about yesterday's football game. I am not. I'm a Broncos fan for life and while I'm a little bummed they didn't play their best, I'm proud of what my team has accomplished over the last couple of years.

Let me give you my (athlete) side of the story.

We all have off days. And unfortunately for the Broncos, Peyton had his off day yesterday. I will agree he did not play his best... but Peyton is not THE Broncos. There are many more men out there on the field wearing the same jersey. Our defense decided not to even show up to the game and special teams allowed quite a few points. So let me rephrase: "Every single Bronco player had an off day".

I understand this is the Super Bowl and they should've given it everything they had. What makes you think they didn't? How can you be 100% sure they didn't try as hard as they could? This is probably a good time for me to (very briefly) talk about my worst race this past year: The Bear Chase.

The Bear Chase in 2012 was my comeback to trail-running and ultra-running. It was a great day. During the 2013 season I trained hard and pushed my body to new limits challenging myself to do greater things (in running). I was looking forward to run Bear Chase in 2013. I knew it was a true test for me, the Super Bowl of my running season.

Despite my hard training, I was battling a cold. And that didn't stop me from running. But I didn't seem to be able to control my breathing on race day. The course changed slightly due to the floods and I was just not feeling it. I KNEW I was a better runner at that point than I was same time the previous year. Throughout the race I realized I was never gonna "catch up" to my 2012 time, let alone beat it. My new goal: just finish.

I finished. A whole hour slower than the previous year. Disappointing. But it's just me, and me alone who know how deep I dug and how hard I tried to just get to the finish line. I gave it my all, my body just wouldn't respond.

Sometimes you have to "just finish" and keep your head up... EVEN if it's not your best day

So, back to the Broncos. Disappointing. But I will cut them some slack... I've had my off days even on my most important days. Lucky for me, my results only matter to me. The Broncos... they have thousands of people to respond  to.

Have you had any off days on your big race day?