Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Ultrarunning and Life’s Lessons

I am happy to have a daddy who has ‘been there, done that.’

He knows things. He’s done things. He tells me things. But I don’t listen. Or maybe I don’t listen enough. Or maybe I don’t remember. Or maybe the things aren’t important for me yet.

Maybe … that’s why we (daddy and me) are writing about the lessons he learned here. I can go back and read what he learned later. And maybe they will be more important then.

Daddy did triathlons and ultra-running. That’s a super marathon. That’s like running from San Jose (Ed. we know the way) to San Francisco and back and back to San Francisco AGAIN! all in one day. Daddy has done that.

Daddy says he learned a lot about life while running, plodding, wobbling, crawling along after being on the road for 6+ hours on his bike or 16+ hours on his feet.

Here’s one of his lessons:

Confidence will make or break a rider.

Confidence comes from being prepared. Lots and lots of training. Confidence comes from experience. Knowing that you can do the challenge, have already done the challenge at some point will give you confidence.

But … even you have experience, and training, and preparation, you still have to exercise confidence.

Exercise = practice, strengthen, apply. Funny, confidence needs practicing and preparation, too.

Sometimes people forget their past. Sometimes something will happen that will shake a person’s confidence.

But being confident will make a break an outcome … says daddy.

I think this means I need to practice and practice and to practice to not forget and to practice to not forget, too.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.