thoughts before a triathlon

Saturday was Eppie’s Great Race, the triathlon I have planned to compete in since setting my goals for the year back in January. Friday night it loomed large in my mind, and the following are some of my thoughts from that night, and pre race Saturday.

Fear, the triathlon really scared me. I was afraid of the pain I knew I would feel after running, and I was afraid of failing.

Doubt. I mainly doubted my preparation, I had not done nearly as much running as I should have. I had only done the river leg once and it was Tuesday night, and since then I had removed the Styrofoam float at the front of my boat and purchased a skirt for it.

Nervousness. I was up until 1:00am looking through my race packet, putting my race numbers on my life jacket, bike helmet, and kayak, and reading the instructions. I kept thinking I should go to bed but even once I lay down it took a while to fall asleep.

I really wanted to sit in a hot tub, but Avi’s spa never warmed up in spite of the fact that I spent half an hour cleaning it.

Another set of thought that oscillated through my mind was high ambition and low expectation. It is odd to think that you are going to go out and beat everybody while at the same time genuinely believing that you are going to die in the attempt to simply reach the finish line.

And at the back of all these sat hope.