Words of Wisdom

Paging Dr. Vargas, Dr. Vargas...please answer line one.

For some strange reason, I have started to refer to my coach from Mark Allen Online, Luis (which is pronounced like LUIS not LUISE), as Doc. I think it was because he had to keep trying to fix me since I seem to like collapsing and crawling my way through races. I'll have to do a recap on that from St. Croix, it's real crowd pleaser as my husband likes to say! I have officially told my mother, and she hasn't collapsed yet, so I guess it is ok to talk about it publicly now.

Anyway, Doc Vargas has been slowly trying to coach me through the nutrition/glucose issues I've been having since we started this MAO (Mark Allen Online) Journey in February. He's very knowledgeable, extremely forthright and candid, and most of all, he's been there, done that (Kona finisher many times over etc.). He's a good guy, and realizes it could be a wonderful race on October 11th, or a very scary race on October 11th, depending on how much I can nail down between now and then.

I just emailed him yesterday to ask a couple of questions and of course, at the end, I commented on how I wasn't that pleased with Philly but there were more important things to worry about. His words were epic.. profound.. well, you see for yourself...

You can do well everywhere but if you stink it up in Kona it will be a long winter. But if you do not do well everywhere and do well in Kona you will have a happy winter.

Now is that strait out of a fortune cookie or what! Seriously, a little long for one of those little white papers, but oh how true. I've been thinking a lot lately about this race and all of it's different aspects. I've been reading other blogs about Ironman training, that are funny, yet detail the incredibly difficult training that is Ironman. I've even been looking at pictures, watching my Ironman Race Video recorded from TV (that I watched ALL winter on the trainer), and thinking about what it will be like to be there. As my husband says, in a sense, I'm doing the Ironman right now, every day in training. Of course, on that day you do the entire race and you officially say, I am an Ironman, but you can do that because of all grueling days of training leading up to that day, all the time spent, and all the sacrifices made to get you there. You really can't have one without the other. Every time I get out there and train for 6-7 hours on a Saturday I want to remember that, I'm doing the Ironman now, right now, and that is something to keep me positive and motivated.

That being said, it is the most important race of the season now. I do want to do well in other races, but never at the expense of doing well in Kona. Heck - I'm even doing a my first open water swim race this weekend in an effort to better prepare myself to swim 2.4 miles. Who EVER thought I would be doing something like that!

My husband and I traveled to Hawaii two years ago in September for a show in Honolulu and then ventured to the big island for two days following once I was done working. We were lucky enough to stand right there at the pier, drive past the energy lab, and size up the finish line in Kona. As I stared at the miles of black lava rock with little white stones donning encouraging messages to competitors, I remember saying "I'm going to be here one day to compete," and I really believed it, in my heart. On that day, I think I might have had one sprint triathlon to my name. I never imagined it would be this soon. Thus, the story begins!

So, if you want to know what I'll be doing from now until October, I'll be channeling my Ironman Chi every day, praying about it, thinking about it, and preparing to the best of my ability for it. A wise triathlon guru once said... you do well at Ironman (which for me, means to cross that finish standing, hi-fiving & smiling) it makes for a happy winter :)