Will 3 be a charm ?

This is my finisher photo for Arizona in 2009 .... it is the beginning of a long 2 years and it was a great day even with injuries and frustration for most of my marathon.



I didn't write down anything from my 2009 journey and I now wish I had because in reading my post from 2008 Lake Placid Ironman this morning I realized that through everything in my life the past few years I have come so far and that some days you need to reflect on the good to appreciate the journey you are on.



That being said I am starting my 2011 Ironman blog late in the game ... it's only 25 days to race day ALL of the hard training is behind me .... thank god !!! However, this year has thrown me so many curve balls that this journey may prove to be the hardest one of all.



The physical training for Ironman can be overwhelming at times and there are days when I personally find myself wondering why in the world I have signed up to do a 3rd Ironman.... what am I trying to prove and who and I trying to prove it to ?? Both questions I am still working on the answers to and those lead me to the mental side of training and finishing a Ironman. 2011 has been quite a long and frustrating year thus far for me. My professional life has been in upheaval since January and every time I think things might be settling down it seems like I get thrown a 100 mile per hour curve ball. However, in the midst of all the craziness and frustration I have had such positive and amazing opportunities that somehow I have continued to get up and fight and believe that it will all work out in the end. My Arizona Ironman is honestly the thing that seems to be going good 25 days from race day. I am relatively uninjured ( dealing with some ankle pain when I get to 13 miles of running but nothing I can't push through for 13 more miles on race day ) In 09 my feet hurt at mile 4 and I had to pus through 22.2 miles of pain so 13 sounds pretty easy right now.




This past weekend was a big one I did a 20 mile run on Friday flew to NC and worked on Sat. returned home on Sat night so that I could ride 120 miles on Sunday. The run was ok. Logistically it was hard as I had to start so early that I needed to do the 1st 1.5 hours inside on a track that takes 13 loops to equal a mile... I did just over 8 miles running around in circles (over 100 laps ) I then did a quick change to dry warm clothes and headed to the trail where my good friend Mike Beegen was meeting me to run the next 1 hour and 24 minutes... ( my friends rock )



Mike and I had a good run ... we kept a pretty good pace and I felt really good until the last 10 - 15 minutes at that point the ankle started hurting and I got a little ( a lot ) frustrated .. however, I had another amazing friend Steve Crawford waiting in the parking lot to finish the run with me and to thankfully give me some moral support and distraction !! I wasn't able to keep the 11:20 pace I had with Mike but Steve was patient with me and we got it done ..... 18-20 what ever the final number ended up being it was in the bank.


The bike ride on Sunday was a bit harder and much much longer !!!! The ride started about a hour from my house and wheels up was 7:30 so I was up at 4:45 am to eat, drink some coffee and get mentally ready for the day. It was COLD not much more than 40 degrees when we started. If your reading this you know me well enough to know that I hate to be cold so I was a bit grumpy even before the start of the day. Then I picked up the cue sheets for the ride and saw that we were actually going to be doing 123.8 miles and my attitude continued to decline. The first 20 miles were really cold ( at least I was freezing ) however I was riding with my good friends and we were joking and chatting and basically keeping each other from just bitching ... there was bitching but it was short and usually humorous. Thank you Becky, Jodie, Dennis (aka Barbie ) and a new friend Mark for being with me. Our fist loop was 50 miles, it did get warmer so when we got back to the car most of us shredded layers and filled up on nutrition and were in a pretty good frame of mind starting the 2nd 73.8 mile loop. We started off singing and that its self is humorous enough or scary enough to usually thin our crowd out .. yet everyone remained ( sorry Tracey Ford I know my voice is frightening ) anyway, about 20-30 miles in to a pretty hilly ride thus far the wind really picked up most of us were struggling to stay positive and get the ride done.. we stayed together in a group until we got to mile 95 and even though we were all fighting mentally and physically and were more than ready to be done we were still smiling !!!







I wasn't the best friend ever at this point mentally I needed to get this ride in the bag somehow we had been out for 8 hrs all ready and I was starting to want to quite Mark was feeling the same so he and I picked up our pace and heading toward the finish. At mile 112 we had a brief celebration thinking at IM we would be done however we still had more than 10 miles to go and it was getting dark and cold and we just wanted to be done. Thankfully at mile 121 I remembered a little short cut that would avoid a big hill and take at least 2 maybe more miles off the ride so we detoured and knocked out the last 3 miles. It was a long day and in the end I am still not sure how I feel about it ... ride time was much longer than I thought it would be but knowing that its done opens the door to focus on the big prize, the finish line on November 20th. So I guess I am happy and looking forward to the next few weeks.


I plan to try to put the personal and emotional baggage away for a few weeks and concentrate on the life I have right in front of me ... finishing a 3rd Ironman with a the most amazing group of friends that I could ever ask for.... I know there will be some soul searching between now and then and that I won't be able to walk away from all the stuff that is happening but I hope to put it in a place that allows me to be grateful for journey. I plan to write more over the next few weeks with the hopes of being able to get the demons out of my head. In the end maybe I won't but I think it is such a great way to reflect when the race is over and life has moved on. Now I am going to get some work done and think about what I'm going to eat the rest of the day.