The Journey

I've just finished a 2 hour 50 minute run, which by itself, might not sound like that much of an accomplishment. I don't know what the hell I'm saying here--2 years ago, 2 hours and 50 minutes of straight running seemed unachievable to me, but that's not what I'm trying to get at. This run was on the heels of a half ironman done this past Saturday, and a 2 hour long brick workout done yesterday, along with a few other workouts tossed in for good measure during this week of training. My legs were sore and tired to begin with--at the beginning of the run, I found myself gazing down the LA river trail wondering how I would run out to the half way point and then turn around and run home. I had my bus pass in my pocket if I needed it to get home. I premedicated with Aleve just in case my knee decided to flare up on me. Somewhere, something inside of me took over to take my hand and press the start button and start shuffling my feet for what would be something like 14000 steps over the next 2 hours and 50 minutes. Maybe it was the same thing that used to get me to jump into an icy cold pool at 5:30 in the morning in high school--I don't know. I just know that I don't really remember much about the first couple of miles.

They say that Ironman is as much, or maybe more, about the journey you take in training for the race than it is about the day of the race itself. It steels your resolve--it takes whatever was going through your mind when you signed up for the race, and rips it to shreds, puts it through the food processor, and blends it up with some Accelerade to see if you can stomach it on a daily basis. It tests the very core of your determination, to see if the one question you have to ask yourself, is one that you have the right answer to--can you keep going?

Some days, it would seem that the answer is no--but the good thing about such a ridiculously long race, with such long training requirements, is that the "no" usually falls apart given a few minutes, or this morning, as it turns out, an extra hour. I woke up, with a feeling of procrastination on my mind--6:30 turned into time for coffee, for taking out the garbage, for making sure that I had the best breakfast possible before heading out on this run. 6:30 became 7:30, and then 8:30....before I knew it, I'd been up for nearly 2 and half hours and I wasn't quite ready for this run. Mix up some accelerade--what question got blended up in this batch? Do I have enough powergels and salt tablets to get through the run? Do I have enough sunscreen--I'm nearly out--just a tube of "facial" sunscreen--it'll have to do for my legs and arms.

When April 13th rolls around, I know I'll be ready on time--it's easy to have everything in line for a race--the hard part is being ready for each day of workouts--for always having on hand what's needed, or if needed, improvising. I don't know what that one day will bring, but in my mind, I've already won the journey.

This race has brought me solace in my life--it's not about the rat race of work anymore--other things are more important to me. My friends, my family, all of those people who touch my life, on a daily, or even a very infrequent basis--they all inspire me, and I couldn't have done all of this without them. So, I don't know that all of them will ever read this, but if they do--thank you for being there. You make me who I am.

--Drew