Iron Man Race 2, Mark 0

I trained, and trained, and trained, in anticipation of the Louisville Iron Man race on August 29, 2010.

My daughter drove down from Ohio, my brother up from Florida, and I flew into Louisville.  The weather was great, right up until the day of the race.  Then the humidity and temperature spiked, deflating the hopes of a lot of racers.

Despite beating my target swim time by a minute or two, and hitting the 23 mile marker at a 17 miles per hour pace, I was unable to finish the bicycle ride.  Drat!  So frustrating.  All those hours of hard work useless on race day.

The front brake had been sticking for awhile.  I took it in to be fixed about a month before the race.  Then, the day before the race, my brother noticed that it was rubbing again.  I took it in to the bike tech and asked him to fix it.  He said he would, and it appeared he had.

My bike hadn't been running so smoothly for months - that is, until I had to use the brakes in a major way.  At about mile 20, there is a large gully that the race goes into and out of, then doubles back into and out again.  The road goes down the side of the gully and it is very steep - brakes definitely required.

Unfortunately, my brake started sticking again and, although I might have figured it out had I been thinking about it, I didn't realize the brake was rubbing until, at about mile 45, I dropped out of the race due to temporary utter exhaustion.  Only about 30 minutes later did I realize that the brake was sticking - but I still didn't know how to fix it.

As I was riding back with four or five other drop outs, one of whom told me it was his tenth Ironman, we reach related the reason we were quitting.  Yes, quitting the race.  When I mentioned my brake was sticking, the veteran said "I think that's happened to us all at one time or another."  While it didn't exactly make me feel like a winner, or even an iron man, I didn't feel quite so much like a loser, a quitter - more like an incompleter.

What did I learn?

I enjoy training for the race.  Lost more than 20 pounds in the last 18 months since I first started training.  I can find time to train - revenues were up from June through September - the months my scheduling was most affected by training, participating, and recovery.

I enjoyed seeing my daughter and brother far more than I enjoyed the race itself.  So, we could have been doing almost anything else and I would have had a great weekend.  My identity, in other words, is not caught up in the race, but rather, truly, the long journey and my relationship to those I love.

There are no guarantees in life.  I trained long and hard, was mentally prepared for the race, and still couldn't complete it.  However, I feel like an ironman - my stamina is way up, my swimming is off the charts (for me), biking is now a breeze, and I'm stronger, lighter, and healthier than I've been in quite awhile.

I was surprised that I was actually a little depressed for several weeks after I got home.   But now I've signed up to do a 25K (I think that's about 15 miles) trail run on Devil Mountain (Mt. Diablo) up in the Bay Area with my other daughter and brother in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure I'll finish this race, and have a fun day with family, including my daughter's boyfriend and his parents.

Life is so good.