In eleven days, I’ll take on my eleventh Falmouth Road Race—with only seven weeks of training.

Typically, I train year-round, but recent physical setbacks forced me to scale back. I’m still not 100%, but I keep going. After all, I’m the one who’s always preaching about persistence, determination, and resilience—so I try to walk the talk. Literally.

I’m running for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and that gives every step a purpose.

Six miles gives you a lot of time to think. Ninety minutes alone on your feet is a conversation with your mind, your body, and the voices in your head.

During the run I thought about how disappointed I was of not being able to train better or longer, but back in the early spring, I was optimistic and signed up for the event and made a commitment to help raise $2,000 in exchange for the privilege of running. Through six months of physical therapy, and sleeping on my left side only, somehow, I have been able to overcome the formerly intense pain and replace it with minor pain.

Somehow, I put together a plan that began with one lap run around the high school track, a quarter mile, and gradually built up a little more distance, week by week. I have hit all the milestones I planned, and I am no longer disappointed in anything about this event.

During my training run this past Sunday, thinking about my disappointment, helped to make it miraculously disappear. Read on to learn what I was thinking.

The Many Shades of Disappointment

Disappointment is a universal experience, but it wears many faces. Your team losing a game is different than being passed over for a promotion. Gaining five pounds is not the same as being in a car accident. But regardless of scale, the emotional sting is real.

And while the forms of disappointment vary, the ways we respond to it are surprisingly few.

The Four Reactions

1: We Can Fall Apart

Some people fall apart completely, others only temporarily, still others only partially. The severity usually correlates to the importance of the loss.

For example, when the Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl—in 2008 and 2012—it stung, but I bounced back in a day or two. But when they lost to the Bears in New Orleans in 1986, and I was there with my brother Brian. That took six months to get over.

Losing a phone and losing a loved one are both disappointments—but vastly different in recovery time and impact. One thing I know is that we might want to stand our ground, but the size of the wave can still knock us over.

2: We Can Pause, Then Restart

Some disappointments are just potholes—annoying but survivable. You hit one, curse a little, then keep going.

Missing your Keno numbers, losing an argument, or getting stuck at a train crossing—these are frustrating, but we don’t change our lives over them. We grumble, pause, and move on.

Some people grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, pause and move on. Wasted grumbles.

3: We Can Change Course

Other times, disappointment forces a redirect. A job falls through, a relationship ends, or a long-planned venture doesn’t take off.

These are not necessarily failures—they can be mid-course corrections. Shifting paths isn’t admitting defeat; it’s adapting with wisdom. Sometimes, that failed plan was pointing you in the wrong direction all along.

My career aspirations to be a catcher for the Red Sox or a weatherman on TV didn't quite come true, so I changed course. It is likely that most people do change course, some more than others.

4: We Can Bounce Back Stronger

And then there are those who, before the dust settles, are already strategizing the comeback. These are the mountain climbers of life.

They don’t just recover—they rebuild with purpose. The bounce back isn’t just a return; it’s a transformation.

This is the coach making a game plan for the following week, after a tough loss, and vowing to have his team even more ready for the next challenge.

The Real Question: How Long Do You Stay Down?

Years ago, I heard a quote that stuck: “It’s not how many times you get knocked down; it’s how quickly you get back up.”

That’s the key.

Recovery time is the real differentiator. If disappointment sidelines you for a month, what’s the cost? You lose motivation, enthusiasm, focus, energy, sleep, and maybe even relationships. If it takes three weeks? Still costly. Three days? Better. Three hours? Now we’re talking.

The cost of a disappointment is directly related to how long you stay down. While you are down, the rest of the world is moving ahead, without you.

No matter what knocked you down, eventually, you’re going to have to stand back up.

The longer you stay down, the harder the climb to get back. Time spent wallowing rarely improves the situation—and it certainly doesn’t get you closer to your goals.

The faster you recover, the more resilient you become. And resilience is the quality that inspires others most. Not just that you got back up—but how quickly you did.

Final Thought

We tend to admire people who overcame adversity—not those born into comfort and ease. It’s not about being invincible. It’s about being unbreakable. And when you’re down, remember: the comeback starts the moment you decide not to stay down.

In my case, the disappointment disappeared on my weekend run because I realized that even if I had trained year-round for the event, I would still be running 6 miles last Sunday.

I had already bounced back, just not all the way. I'm now back and ready to take on the heat, and humidity, and the other 12,000 runners for the 11th time because there is a thin line between bravery and stupidity, and I am very familiar with the line.

No mug during one year of the pandemic.