Don't let 'em take the fight out of you

I just heard this song by Ben Harper and it kind of sums up where I'm at right now. I have a hard bouncing back from bad races when it's a one shot deal. There's really no other chance to qualify for Hawaii as an age group athlete right now because all the races are full. This is one of the reasons I want to race as a pro (among many). As a pro you don't have to put all your eggs in one basket like an age grouper. Pros can register for a race whenever they want even when the race is full and it can even happen on race week!! Anyhow I'm looking forward to making use of the fitness I built up and do some half irons and oly dist races.

Don't let 'em take the fight out of you.

The other side of Ironman racing--Post Ironman Lake Placid 2008

This is all I got right now. it is really just a venting of disappointment. I want to be positive but this is the other side of what can happen in ironman racing even if you do everything perfectly. I am happy that I finished this race though and toughed it out to the finish.

I did everything right. I got in my early morning swims. I got in countless rides over 100 miles. I ran 35-50 miles a week all winter. I ate right and slept a lot. I was lean, fit and strong. I corrected previous mistakes. I had my race fueling dialed in and I practiced it day and day out for almost a year. I sacrificed and I sacrificed some more. I lived ate and breathed ironman training for the last 7 months. I put my wife through hell while training for this and for what? I had my race plan dialed in and all I needed to do was execute. I executed my plan perfectly on race day. How could things turn out so badly? Where did I go wrong? Why am I cursed at Lake Placid? I don’t why I do this to myself over and over. I worked so hard only to have it crumble in front of my eyes on race day. I don’t know what I did wrong. Should I have taken some more time off when my groin pull bothered me in February? Or when that heel issue came up, should I have stopped running for a while? I went to my chiro guy every week and had the knots worked on. I constantly worked on my own trigger points and stretching. Why was I in so much pain on race day? Why did this happen? Was it the cold weather? All that hard work and it didn’t amount to anything, I feel like quitting this sport. I can’t believe how much I put Lindsay through as well as my family while training for this. I wanted to go to Hawaii so badly it burned my blood.

I will come out of this a better athlete. I will learn from this and continue to move toward my dreams.