The final hours!

Well, obviously, I am horrible at keeping any consistent blog/training log. The last couple of months have been intense in so many ways. I've been having my knee worked on by a wonderful doctor. We'll see how well he did tomorrow. I've been training and not training and worrying about training and worrying about not training. It's all finally culminating.

That's right, in about 3 hours, I will attempt to go to sleep at 9pm. Attempt is the key word here. I imagine that it will be a sleepness night. The day has finally arrived. Ironman. I've been waiting for it to come and now that it's here, I kind of wish I had another month. It's one thing to tell people that you're training to do an Ironman in a few months and a whole other thing to say "I'm doing an Ironman TOMORROW." Tomorrow. Good grief. What have I got myself into?

I've been in Coeur d'Alene since Tuesday. We drove the bike course on Wednesday. MUCH harder than I thought it was going to be. Where was the ONE hill that I had to worry about? How did the ONE hill turn into about SIX??? Elevation charts are VERY deceiving. Thursday we got into the lake for the first time. FEAR! I'm usually just fine and dandy with the water. Apparently the one thing I don't like is to swim in FREEZING cold water. The second a little bit slid down the neck of my wetsuit. OH -- I squealed a bit. Then more. Oh man, that is COLD! I tried to put my face in the water to swim -- wow -- I was not having that. It felt like the time I stupidly dunked my head in an ice cooler full of ice and water. I haven't felt pain like that until Thursday. I forced myself to keep my face in the water until the pain went away (aka -- my face went numb), but even then I could not catch my breath. I got out of the water after a while. My friend, E, called, and immediately I started to cry. How was I going to do this?

Fortunately, I went on a 13 mile bike ride Friday morning. That helped me feel normal. We got in the water again -- this time with vasoline smeared all over my cheeks and chin and neck. MUCH BETTER! Still cold, but I was more prepared. It was the confidence boost I needed.

Today, Saturday, we dropped off our bikes and our transition bags. I felt naked as I left the transition area with all of my precious equipment sitting there -- waiting to get rained upon. Now, hours later, stretched and rolled out, I'm typing my last first Ironman entry on this blog. I look back and wish that I had been more diligent about keeping track of my progress and my fallbacks. It's been a blur. Tomorrow is the day.

Tonight, I will mix all of my nutrition so that I can grab it all in the morning and head off. I have my Evan bracelet on to remind me what courage is throughout the day. There will be tears, no doubt. There will be doubt, plenty of it and several times. But if ever I want to stop and quit, I will look at the bright orange bracelet around my wrist and remember what it means to fight. This one is for you, Evan and Matt! Thank you for the inspiration and the journey!

7am - the gun goes off and 2300 people will run into Lake Coeur d'Alene and take off for an experience of a lifetime. I pray that I enjoy and am grateful for every second -- even the hard ones. :)