Given the opportunity

I keep a picture of a great man on the bento box of my race bike. It is the picture of triumph, of beating the odds, and of staring death in the face and not flinching. It is the picture of Randy, standing a top Sun's Gate at Machu Picchu in Peru. He did the hike with only one leg, losing the other to cancer, and with lungs filled with the same cancer. He did it because...well, that's just who he was.

There is much hype around my upcoming Ironman race in Wisconsin, as maybe there should be. But as they say "you can't always believe the hype". I have never done an Iron distance triathlon before. I have done a couple of halves and ran a marathon. I have ridden a few "centuries" and swam over 2.5 miles. I do not recall any of these being a prerequisite to competing in the race. To be honest, the only pre-req for this race was $625.00, which was paid in full the day after last years race. I have trained for this race since last November, which only means that I spent a lot of time away from my family doing the swim/bike/run thing. There are no guarantee's to this race, other than the refund date on my entry fee has passed, and they only give back $150 of your money anyway...not that I would back out...but it is the only guarantee I could find in the fine print.

So here I am, with good lungs, two legs, and a body of fitness I hope can carry me across the line on Sept. 11th, and that is what I am going for. What I have come to realize about this sport, and life in general, is that if you never toe the line, or show up to battle on race day, you are left with a lousy refund and a bunch of time spent training to avoid everything else. The race does not care what I did before today, it only records a start time, a few splits in between, and a finishing time. The best part about racing, is that the line doesn't care how fast I was in my last race, for today is a new day.

To honor my family and those who have helped me along the way, I will take the opportunity I have been given and go after my first Ironman finish.