14 Days & Counting!

In two weeks I'll be on the road heading to Lake Placid, NY. I can't believe it's coming so soon, I arranged everything several months ago, so to have it be a few weeks away feels intimidating. Ha, if I'm this choked up about just registering - God help me next year when it comes to actually doing the damn thing.

When I first moved to San Francisco, before I had even done my first marathon, I wanted to do an Ironman. I remember watching Monday Night Football with friends and saying, "I want to do an Ironman some day." This was when I was training for the 2007 CA International Marathon. About halfway into my training I learned what happens when you don't eat right & over train - you get hurt. The marathon was the first weekend of December; in mid October I was told to hold off on any running for 6 weeks. And I was to begin with 6 miles a week, and increase my mileage at 10% a week.

I gave up on the CIM but continued to cross train in the pool and on the bike. I got the okay to run again about 10 days before the event, and my friend Tony told me to just do the first 13 miles because "you've already paid for it, might as well do the first half". So I went with my room mate Kate, and Tony, since they were also running, with plans to drop at 13. Around mile 5 I made the decision to not stop. I just wanted the medal so bad. I just wanted to finish; I didn't want to give up. I actually got jealous of the runners around me because they were going to the end, and I wasn't. That's when I said, screw it, I'm not going to stop. It was like... running a marathon by mistake. When I got up that day - I had no intentions of running 26.2 miles.

At the end of it all, it just amazed me to see what I actually was capable of doing if I put my mind to it. By the way, it was pretty funny to see my friends' shocked faces when I turned the corner to finish at mile 26. And I always remember what Kate said "if you can do that after not running for almost two months, you can definitely do an ironman."

That was in December 2007. I came close to registering for the Utah Ironman (nearly geeked out at that $550 price) but backed off at the last minute. I always used the bike & cost as excuses to not do it. I could have afforded Utah at the time, but I wasn't really pumped about going there. I would check the Ford site a few times a month and would dismiss the idea once I saw the prices and how tough it was to register. It was never the idea of exercising 14-17 hours in one day that made me shy away from the event; it was the unwillingness to organize myself to get the costs, registration, and the bike all sorted. Ultimately Lake Placid was selected because one, I love the movie Miracle, and two, if I'm doing this thing, I want my family there. So I suppose that's the reason of my disbelief of my trip to LP. It's kinda weird that it's actually happening.