2:30am musings

It's the morning of the tri; the coffee's brewing and the oatmeal is on the stove. I had been nervous about this triathlon up until a couple of weeks ago. Since that time, I have been surprisingly neutral. The only two times I recall getting agitated was yesterday when I could not find my sunglasses and earlier in the day in the athlete orientation, when I wanted to ask a question, but this guy was going on and on telling the race organizer that 'this was not the way to do a time trial start'. I felt like telling the guy to go on Facebook and join the other negative commentators.

My question? I didn't know the process of bottle exchange. This other guy helped me visualize what this involves so that I can do it smoothly. I had to identify which bottles I was willing to let go of. I found myself suddenly attached to all my bottles. Actually, the only one I really am attached to is this water bottle from the NYC century ride. It occurred on 9/9/2001.

The magazine that came in our 'swag bag' had an article on sports psychology tips. Tip #10 asked individuals to 'recall your mindset when you clicked on the 'register' button for the Pocono race'; and to not let that be overshadowed by splits, chip times, etc. This was a great reminder for me as I had kind of been feeling uncertain if I had done as much as I could in my training. I alternated between gratitude that I don't have any chronic problem/injury and wondering whether this indicates that I didn't push myself as hard as I could have - right to the edge and slightly over.

For the Black Bear tri in June, my bike split pace was between 12 and 13mph. This course is harder (and longer) but I hope to go over 13 mph average. This will be harder if it's still raining or wet. ( just looked out the window and it's not raining ! So this is good!). During the NYC tri, it was harder to keep a race pace because something happened to my odometer. I did not really know how fast I was going.

The name of this blog is, well you know. So, what will I write about? Is this the end? During this past month, I have been saying that I will not do another half ironman - it is too time consuming. But Mother Nature played a joke on us. Maybe it was her way of getting me to return next year and REALLY earn the 70.3 medal, doing all 3 events. I suppose I will see how I feel AFTER this race!

The other part of this journey is realizing, and feeling, cared for by other people. There are the race organizers who have worked very hard. And then there is YOU. Quietly reading this blog. The journey is not over, it's just entering the next phase.


-- lemmefineout - Brooklyn