Trifunster

MUSHY BLOG ALERT!

I had a one hour steady ride on the schedule and planned a route to my parents for dinner.  Proper reward for a week of solid workouts.  Plus we had the grandson and I would get a little more time with him.  Extra rewards!

As I was riding my bike I thought, you know, in just one week it’s the Delta Tri, my very first triathlon.  In 2005 I became a triathlete, out of nowhere and now in 2010 I am going to try to do Ironman. 

How did this ever happen???

Riding today over familar routes I approached the Arthur Drive overpass.  In 2005 I used to almost cry when approaching it, wondering if I would have the energy to get up.  I made excuses to avoid it.  Now it’s just an overpass along the way.

Doing the hour ride was just a light day and I never believed I would be able to ride that long and was happy that first triathlon was only 20k which I could do in under an hour.  Of course, I had that 5k to run but figured it would somehow get done.  And it did.

I thought back to the clinic I went to where I was introduced to all these fun triathletes (yes, per my podcast, I hated them all, but that is long in the past) and my first coach, Neil.

Neil will be out watching on Saturday and I have thanked him for all he did for little old me.  I’m never going to be the star athlete that coaches can brag about but he changed my life.  What he did will always be special to me.

I did warn you this was a mushy blog.  Imagine that I actually did the ride thinking about all of this stuff.  Funny what runs through our minds during training.  Today it wasn’t the pain but the journey.

Here I was riding on a fancy tri bike, clipless pedals, wearing the club kit, in the aero position.  Who would have ever imagined.

And as I thought about next Saturday’s race I remembered how nervous I was.  Would I finish?  How could I possibly finish? Am I insane to be thinking I could do this???

Any yet I did manage to finish the race.

This year’s Delta tri is like a training day and I’m not nervous.  My time is probably not going to be any faster but I don’t have jitters, I know what to expect and I will enjoy myself.

This memory is very important as my goal of Ironman Canada gets closer.  I am terrified of the race.  Will I finish?  How can I possibly finish? Am I insane to be thinking I can do this???

Hope so!