1. Well, I’ve done this before, right? So, why am I so anxious? I mean, There is just crazy talk going on in my head. I guess it’s that combination of:
a. I know I can finish, but that’s not the point.
b. I have a reasonable goal in my mind, but that’s not the real goal.
c. I have a perfect day goal in my mind, and that’s the one I want to hit.
That only leaves me with one thing to do. Stop thinking about “c” and enjoy the “a” and “b” parts.
2. You may not know this, but 3 of the Fab 5 will be reunion-ing at this race. Mark and Jim will join me for a second run at this Ironman-business. We haven’t trained together that much (which is kind of strange considering we live within a 3 mile radius of each other) but we will always bond like Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson, and Chris Weber of the other Fab 5. Racer K has since moved to Colorado and is blowing through 100 mile rides like they are dusty piles of snow, and Daniel is knee deep in marathon training his butt to Boston.
3. The other day I said there’s nothing like getting your bib and bracelet to make it “feel real,” but I think I’d like to change that to shaving your legs.
4. Yogi Berra died today and that kinda hit me a little bit. I’m a huge baseball fan and think of those old ballers as sort of the original Ironmen. Lou Gehrig played 2,130 consecutive games and was nicknamed the Iron Horse. Yogi Berra caught both ends of 118 double headers in his career! These guys are the Mark Allen’s and Dave Scott’s of baseball and I think we have a tendency to forget the people who laid the groundwork for what our favorite sports have become.
* Imagine if your Ironman turned into this . . .
Follow me on Twitter @miketarrolly before it’s too late.