It's Tuesday, which means we now have four days to go before the Ironman World Championship. Four days. It's hard to believe that this journey that started to percolate in my brain 37 years ago is finally coming to fruition. In many ways, after 14 Ironman's, it's become relatively routine. I know what to expect, I know what to do, and I can go out and do it. I have learned over the past couple of years that I can finish an Ironman on very little training. It certainly doesn't feel as good, but I can get it done. Fortunately, I've trained more for this race than any other Ironman before it. That's as it should be.
Kona is anything but routine. I attacked this past weekend with zeal, running in the local 10K, ignoring my elevated heart rate, and putting in an effort that might have been a little too much. I then did the Ironman course training swim with similar enthusiasm. Those two efforts have actually put me a little under the weather for the past couple of days. But, like everything Ironman, it's all about balance. This is my first time racing in Kona. It isn't routine. I've wanted to absorb everything about this iconic race, and that's why I'm here. I'd love to have my best performance, but that's never really why I do these races, is it? I will give it everything I have, that's the measure that I always use on race day. The result will be what it is. That, in fact, is my routine!
If you've been reading my blogs, you know that I have a long and storied history of getting various injuries and muscle spasms prior to my races. So far I've dodge that bullet. On the other hand, I'm not being completely truthful when I say that I felt under the weather for a couple of days. I actually felt like crap! I was concerned that I'd come down with a cold, like the one I'll write about in tomorrows blog. Fortunately, and it does help to be a doctor, I've realized that the stress of the 10K, combined with the humidity and whatever pollens were in the air, really affected my sinuses. I've always been prone to sinus infections, and that's essentially what I've been fighting. Based on how I'm feeling today, I'm going to be ok, with only one exception. I've completely lost my voice! There is the irony. No muscle spasm or physical injury, but I won't be able to talk for the rest of the week! Those who know me would probably say that I have a tendency to talk too much. The Kona Ironman gods are clearly making light of this fact! Last night, I met Missy LeStrange, 2018 Triathlete of the Year, and someone I've tracked every year that I've been involved in this incredible sport. She epitomizes the age group athlete and at the age of 67, has become an incredible ambassador for what we can accomplish as we get older. Anyway, she told me that I'll get my voice back on Sunday!
I do need to mention the 2017 Boulder Ironman, as I continue the countdown of all the Ironman races that I've done. I realized reading my race report that doing Ironman races had in many ways become routine for me. Once you've done 10 of these, most of the elements of a race are almost second nature. There's not much to learn by reading my race report, other than the fact that I had one of the fastest runs in my age group (which has always been the biggest challenge) but if you're interested, here it is: http://wassdoc.blogspot.com/2017/06/ironman-boulder-2017-race-recap.html.
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