Overcoming Challenges is the Best Part

This was it. I hit the first jump perfectly and hoped I had enough speed for the next. As I flew off the lip of the second jump, I realized I wasn’t going fast enough. This wasn’t going to turn out well. I was 12 feet in the air, clipped into my pedals and just hanging on, hoping I wouldn’t get hurt too badly. At the last minute, I pulled my hands from the handlebars and tried to soften the impact. I hit the landing about five feet from where I should have and drilled into the ground. Once I stopped rolling, I realized three things. One, my left collarbone was broken – again. Two, my knee wouldn’t straighten. And three, I couldn’t breathe. It felt like I had holes in my lungs. A broken bone is one thing, but not being able to breathe made me think about telling my Mom that I loved her. Scary was a drastic understatement.

In my early twenties I left my Mom – my only family since my father passed away when I was four years old – and moved to Durango, Colorado to pursue my dream of becoming a professional mountain bike racer. When I lived at home, I didn’t even have to do my own laundry. All of a sudden I was in another state learning everything for the first time. Moving to Colorado was the right choice, but it was also the hardest one I could have made. I was training to be a pro, working a seasonal job to support myself and learning a lot about who I was and where I wanted to go. Moving was my first big reality check.

I trained hard in Durango and declined two good pro team offers after signing a letter of intent with an even better one. Then everything came crashing down. The team I was waiting for backed out and I had to move in again with my Mom. I was going to give up. I was all set to go back to school and give up biking because I didn’t have a sponsor or money to pay the bills, but at the last minute I got the call from a new team. That was the closest I’ve ever come to quitting the sport and abandoning my dream.

Since that time I’ve gone on to win two national championships, medaled four times at the word championships, and won four medals at the ESPN X-Games – not to mention my fair share of bumps and bruises. In fact injuries have plagued me for most of my professional career but never once have I allowed them to keep from me doing what I want to do. And as result, I’ve been afforded the life I always wanted. How many people can say that they’ve appeared in Sports Illustrated? Yeah, bikes have been pretty good to me.

But here’s the bottom line. My story isn’t that different from yours. I have a job just like anyone else, but I probably come home with a little more dirt on my clothes. Challenges come with the territory. The only question is how we deal with them. Without failures, my success wouldn’t be as special. Without knowing what it’s like to fall, I wouldn’t know the true feeling of getting up and finishing. I look back on my career and feel thankful for what I’ve accomplished and how I’ve gotten here. Because remember, it’s not about where you’re going but what you learn about yourself along the way.

- Tara Llanes