Well, it's that time of year again.
Cooler nights. Shorter days.
It can only mean one thing.
Ultra Tri season is here.
I've been on the fence for...well...all summer about going to Virginia for the Triple Iron. One day I'm in. Next day I'm not.
It all has to do with money, and I hate that. So much.
The reality is that, no matter what my situation is financially, I gotta do it.
What I achieve down there has nothing to do with being a fitness dork, nor does it have anything to do with the accomplishment of doing 3 times the distance of what many consider the pinnacle of triathlon.
It's the silence in the water, in between the coughs of Lake Anna exiting my lungs.
It's the calm and settling in of night 1, knowing that by the end of the night and the rise of the next sun, I will still be there. Pedaling. Perhaps tranquil in the gray predawn light, or maybe half asleep and full of despair, or if I'm lucky, I'll be in angry-zombie-biker- mode, clicking off fast, hard laps. Race mood swings have earned me the nickname of Jekyll and Hyde.
It's the sound of my own footsteps, rhythmic in the night, looking up the gigantic hill that looked so gradual 30 hours ago.
I need these things every fall, to remind myself why I walk out the door every day and lace up my running shoes.
Why I've made so many sacrifices in my life in pursuit of not so much fitness, but enlightenment.
The last few years, I have entered the water at Lake Anna and seen the dimension where the rules of the universe no longer apply, delving into a world of absolute weakness and absolute power.
Each time, I have exited a new and stronger person.
I don't want to race at Lake Anna.
I need to.
krp
No comments:
Post a Comment