A few minutes on the phone with Ann Hayes might just be enough to hearten any listener to tackle an intimidating challenge.
Her motivational secret is not one she keeps to herself. Quite the opposite.
Hayes, a teacher at Kitsilano secondary, taps into the moment she describes as the most difficult of her life when she was isolated on the Hawaiian island of Kona, thrashing against headwinds and barely halfway through a 180-kilometre bike ride. She'd already swam nearly four kilometres and still faced a 26-km marathon run.
She was digging deep to complete the world championship Ironman.
"I had to dig as deep as I've ever dug," said the 60-year-old.
At a half-way mark, she burst into tears. A volunteer looked at Hayes and said, "I'll see you at the finish."
"It was the best thing she could have said to me," Hayes said earlier this week from her classroom at the West Side school.
"I thought, 'OK. I've got to get going. I've got to finish this thing.'"
She spent 90 minutes swimming in the ocean, more than seven hours pedalling and then five-and-a-half hours running and walking in tropical heat and humidity until she finished the extreme endurance race.
Hayes finished 11th out of 19 in her category. A woman from Delta took first place.
Not at one point did Hayes consider quitting. She never intended to travel to the Hawaiian island for the rightofpassage test of stamina and will, but an earlier competition sealed her fate.
Hayes won her category in the Penticton Ironman in August. As the fastest woman in the 60 to 64 age group, she automatically qualified for the international championship in Kona.
"That wasn't the point of my day at all," she said.
Rather, the Penticton race was her third Ironman, a challenge she set for herself because she enjoyed the preparation, she enjoyed each step of the race and she enjoyed the sense of accomplishment.
And that's part of her secret.
"My goal for Penticton was to have a good time," she said. "I was determined to have fun and I wanted to finish with a smile on my face."
She complete the course in 14 hours and four minutes. She certainly must have been smiling.
"This is my last Ironman," she said while celebrating afterward. Then her husband told her she'd been the fastest competitor in her category and she had qualified for one of the most competitive, challenging races on the planet.
And this is the second part of her secret. "I'm a hard worker and I don't see myself as anything but as a hard worker," she said, noting the endless encouragement from her husband, mother and family as well as her coach Kevin Cutjar.
She trained twice a day, six days a week. Swimming in the morning, running or cycling in the afternoon and sometimes more than 150 km a day on her bike.
Recovery time was slower than when she started running triathlons and marathons almost 20 years ago, but if she's committed to one idea, Hayes is committed to putting in the work.
It's this notion of preparation she is particularly keen to share with students. "It's your attitude. I knew I'd done the work. I know I can do it. The point of the day is not to feel awful, the point of the day is to make sure you have fun."
Being prepared after months of training is one way to ensure you enjoy yourself, she said.
"I see it with kids. I say, 'You can't run unless you train. You can't race unless you train. You have to go through the hard work. You won't get the results that you want unless you go through the process.'"
This applies to school, sports, life. "Life is a process," she affirms.
Said Hayes, who coaches the Kitsilano cross-country team and teaches English and philosophy, "You can't achieve unless you are confident you've gone through the process and put in the work and know you're ready to meet the challenge."
Just as she did.
Twitter: @MHStewart
