Don't Stop

The past 2 weeks have been more than just 'taper' weeks. Last week, I visited my mom's hometown. I walked (and ran) the beautiful streets of Barcelona. During the first morning, fighting jetlag, I ran at 5:30 am in 1 degree cold, in the rain. It was awesome in a very, very different way. I also did alot of walking in leather shoes -- bad, bad idea!

The Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's masterpiece which has yet to be completed

During my flight, I finally finished the book Unthinkable by Scott Rigsby. It was truly inspiring, and the perfect read before my Ironman. In that book, I encountered a quote from Theodore Roosevelt which almost brought me to tears. It reads:

'It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.'

The journey has been an awesome experience. Although I was not able to train as long as I wanted, I still swam, biked and ran farther than I ever have. Yes, I swam 3.8km. However, I have not biked 180km and not run anywhere close to a marathon. I put in 5 good weeks of training, pouring in 8-10 hours a week. Not much by most standards, but quite alot for me.


This is the part where we're all anxious, wanting to do more when the program says rest, eat, sleep, rest, eat, sleep. Anxious, scared shitless, antsy, excited, proud...so many emotions and thoughts running through my head. I guess it will all quiet down once I toe the starting line. T minus 4 days and counting.

'Til then...

'Why not think about times to come,
And not about the things that you've done,
If your life was bad to you,
Just think what tomorrow will do.

Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, it'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.'
- From Fleetwood Mac's 'Don't Stop'