Flying to Cozumel

I am sitting in the airport, or flying on a plane, on my way to Cozumel, Mexico to actually race in the IronMan.  I am writing this blog while traveling, so I don't' know when i'll be able to upload it.  I can't believe the day has come, that it is actually three days away and really happening.  Even though I've visualized it a million times and practiced for it for the last 6 months almost every day, it's still hard to believe it's here.

The nerves feel the same as if I were 10 years old going out for my piano recitals again, or about to go through my exit exams for Engineering, about to speak in front of more than a hundred men for the first time.  It's not really fear, that comes over you, more like you become more aware of things.  You start to visualize things that you had never thought of before.  Scenario's and possibilities start racing through your head.  The advice of so many people, trainers, partners, friends and family race through your mind.  You start to think of all the people you would let down if you failed, but instantly shut those thoughts down because they are the enemy.  On Sunday, the contest will be between me and the road, me and the water.  But today the contest is happening between my ears.  I have to control what I allow my mind to visualize, because your mind does not know the difference between reality, and what you visualize.  If you tell yourself not to miss the ball, you'll miss it.  So you have to tell yourself to hit it.

The truly amazing thing is that our minds are capable of visualizing things we have never experienced.  Situations and circumstances we have never gone through.  I can actually see myself climbing those blue stairs after the swim, feel the salt water in my mouth and on my skin, though I have never done these things yet.  My mind will execute them when the time comes according to the dominant thought in my head leading up to it.  It's easy to stay positive when your surrounded by people that believe in you.  And in this modern age of Facebook and social media, it's easy to be 'surrounded' by people that believe in you.  I am sure that the people who encouraged me and thought well enough of me to tell me they were watching will be the thing that carries me through.

After all, once you've told the whole world you're going to do something… well, you just have to do it.  Time for me to go 140.6 miles... because 140.7 would just be insane...