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.