That’s what I wrote to my coach going into my first race of the 2026 season this past weekend.
A duathlon at Riverwinds in West Deptford, New Jersey - one I won last year, so naturally… expectations were there. Mine included.
But this year looked very differently:
I hadn’t had a traditional training ramp including track speedwork (life has been lifing!). I spent time in Ireland with my daughter’s rugby team (worth every second). I had uterine artery embolization (UAE) surgery for fibroids in February and still don’t feel 100% myself. And when I checked the start list… someone in my age group (45–49) was running close to a 6-minute mile.
For context: my best is around 6:20.
So yeah, this wasn’t a “go in confident” situation. It was a “go in curious” one.
The day itself? A little chaotic by design.
4:45 wake-up → Race → sprint to my daughter’s rugby game → drive to Hershey, PA for a spa day with my mom (her Christmas gift from me that we finally scheduled).
Logistically… it was a feat just to show up to all three.
Jaime & Dad, Race Start and Finish.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, I was reminded of something I talk about with clients all the time: Excellence is a standard… but performance is a system.
Not a moment. Not a medal. Not a highlight.
A system.
Because here’s the truth:
Many of you know me through this lens of performance: All-American, always challenging myself in work, sport, motherhood, and life - chasing that next level.
And if I’m honest, there’s a quiet pressure that comes with that.
To always place. To always perform. To always look like the “top 1%.”
But what this weekend reinforced is something I see inside organizations every day:
Even your best performers don’t operate at their best in every condition.
And yet…most companies build their expectations as if they do.
This is where things break down for both of the leaders we work with:
👉🏼For the Results-Driven Revenue Leader: You’re staring at inconsistent performance across your team and wondering why what worked last year isn’t working now.
👉🏼For the Strategic Enablement Partner (HR/L&D/Enablement): You’re being asked to “fix it” with training - without a clear definition of what “great” actually looks like in this environment.
Recommended by LinkedIn How to Get Better, Faster Amy Gammelgard 2 years ago 🏊♀️🚴♀️🏃♀️ How triathlon shapes my leadership Inka Strotmann 7 months ago Flop to the Top Amber Vanderburg 6 years ago Here’s the mistake we see over and over:
We judge performance outcomes… without understanding performance conditions.
We celebrate the win… but never study what actually created it.
We expect repeatability… without building a system that supports it.
In sport, you feel this immediately.
Different training block. Different recovery. Different competition. Different life context.
= Different output. No one is surprised by that.
In business, we ignore it.
We assume: “If they did it once, they should be able to do it again.”
And when they don’t? We add more training. More pressure. More activity.
Instead of asking the better question: "What were the conditions that allowed our best people to be great and how do we recreate those?"
That’s the work.
Not chasing the outcome.
Studying the conditions that produce it.
This is why we're so passionate about “benchmarking your best.” Because the answer isn’t out there in generic models or external benchmarks.
It’s already inside your organization. Just like in sport - it’s in your top performers.
But unless you slow down long enough to study them, you’re left guessing.
As for me?
Did I win?
I’ll save that for another post... ;)
Because this one wasn’t about the result. It was about the reminder:
You don’t scale excellence by expecting it. You scale it by understanding it and then building a system that makes it repeatable - even when conditions aren't perfect.
Another post.