42 Weeks and Counting.....

In 42 weeks from today, I will hopefully be just starting to run a marathon after making the swim and bike cut offs in the 2012 AZ Ironman.  Have just been taking it easy and not pushing myself too hard the past 2 months in anticipation of the intensive training regimen.  It is still hard to fathom how much work there is to do over the next 42 weeks.  I begin training with racelab this week, so I will be trying to get used to a new schedule and taking direction from a coach.  Should be very interesting to say the least.  Instead of my traditional workouts this week, I got on the trail and did some hiking and trail runs.  I assisted leading a 13 mile hike yesterday in lieu of my long run and it was nice to get back in nature and to do something I love before buckling down.  Today I ended up just needing a day of mental and physical silence.  Sometimes you just have to turn the volume down and just be.  I imagine 17 hours of just being on November 19th.  People will be passing by me left and right, but I will just "be".  Crowds will be cheering up and down the course, but I will just "be".  My body will be cold, warm, hot, then cold again, but I will just "be".  My stomach will be in knots, gurgling, hungry, nauseous, gurling, and hungry again, but I will just "be".  I will have sore muscles, cramps, elation, out of body experiences, and more cramps, but I will just "be".  I will cross the line and hear the muffled sounds of "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN".  I will be happy and hugging all the blurred figures around me and then I will collapse and need to lie on my side for minutes or hours.  I will wake the next day feeling proud of my accomplishment, it will be hard to move and walk.  The memory will fade each day.

This is what I imagine it to be.  So I just savor each minute of training, racing, carbo loading, preparation, blood, sweat and tears, because the 42 weeks will go by very quickly and then 17 hours to get the job done and then onto other things.  A medal on my shelf as a reminder.