JJ: Typical - I try to raise the tone around here by posting something slightly off the wall to encourage some intelligent commentary about the psyche of extreme sportspeople, and all we get is a summary dismissal of them as having "Issues" OK, JJ, fine. I am now at my franchised "Dr. Lucy Van Pelt Psychiatric Help Center" stand. The Doctor is IN. 
The initial reaction when you read about such extreme athletes is awe at what they are able to do, and how you can't do it. But, as Paul Harvey says, comes the rest of the story. Bobby's sound bite message is simple: "If you keep trying you will eventually succeed." Fine. Good advice. But I don't understand people who can't seem to find the answer to the question "How much is enough?" Much of the time, people who have reached the pinnacle of their chosen field must confront whether they are truly fulfilled by sacrificing health, family, faith (although we don't know if that's a factor in Brown's life, since he doesn't mention it) and simple pleasures of everyday life in exchange for transitory and temporary glory. Brown says on his site that he wasn't satisfied after completing but not winning the Hawaii Ironman Championship in 1994; he had to do something harder. In 1997, he entered the deca-Ironman in Mexico, the toughest ultra-marathon of all, and reports that "I have never really recovered" from completing it. This raises a question: If there was no deca-Ironman for him to enter, isn't it possible that he might have been satisfied with winning the Hawaii competition? Had he focused on doing that, he wouldn't have suffered the aftereffects of the torture he put himself through. He briefly retired from competition, choosing to become a teacher. He writes: "I now had the confidence to mix socially and had a great time meeting new people. [Apparently, this was a problem previously despite his accomplishments.] I also happened to meet my future wife Amy, who was on the same course. For years I had concentrated solely on my sport with little or no time for someone else." That's quite a trade-off; the remarkable achievements attained at great physical and psychological cost. Would you want to be world-renouned as a super-athlete if you had to shut the rest of that same world out in order to get it done? I would not. There is no shortage of inspiring stories of people whose determination and work ethic brought them fame, fortune, and fulfillment. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana, and a guy I used to work for who escaped a Jewish ghetto in Poland before Nazi pogroms began. After roaming the world alone for a place to make a new start, he ended up in America, eventually heading his own line of sportswear. He died a few years back, and his family operates the company today. The difference between those guys and Bobby Brown, in my strictly amateur opinion, is that they not only found success, but also balance in their lives long before Brown did. So while I acknowledge what Brown has done is remarkable, am I inspired by him? No, not really. Five cents, please.
*pays* That's what I'm talkin' about. Nice work, doc.
