Pre-Race Anxiety
It is currently 3:50pm PST. About two hours ago the anxiety set in. I am at Ironman Oceanside and I found out that the water temperature in the ocean right now is around 55 degrees. This is of major concern to me. When you jump into the water and dunk your head under the water you experience a pain like no other. 55 degrees is like taking an ice cold shower. If the swim takes you 30-40 minutes, you come out of the water frozen. But for me, and see if you can imagine this, when I begin swimming and dunk my head into such cold water, my breath is taken away. Now, try racing as fast as you can with the extreme cold and can no longer breathe. I begin to panic.
I called my coach, Heath Thurston, and he helped talk me down a little bit. I decided to leave the athlete village and return to my hotel room. I began working on my bike to try and distract my mind. This has helped. Another thing that has helped is thinking about my Father-in-Heaven. I know that racing is a righteous endeavor and that Heavenly Father wants me to strive, to extend myself, to push myself to newfound limits. This is the spirit of IRONMAN. I know that I am an IRONMAN and so I will go out tomorrow and do my best.
I put on some music and began thinking about the people who have gone before me. The people like Sara Reinertsen, an above the knee amputee, she is an Ironman. There have been men and women who have overcome tremendous odds. This is the IRONMAN spirit. The Ironman is so many things to so many people. But to all, an IRONMAN is a tempering of the human body and it is a conquest, a victory of the human spirit. It is the most strenuous one day endurance race the world has ever seen. People who believe "IT" is possible, people who believe they can attain anything the world can set before them are drawn to these events. Often times it takes personal adversity, personal tragedy, and personal trials that one must overcome to realize that they too can accomplish anything.
So, here I sit. I am afraid of what lies ahead of me. I can tell you this is FEAR, RAW FEAR. But I am not the fear. I know this. I will go forward to conquer this fear, to extinguish it. It will probably haunt me until the gun goes off tomorrow. But when the gun goes off, I will have to rise up and become bigger than the fear. It is at these points, both big and small, that an IRONMAN is made. May God race with me.
I called my coach, Heath Thurston, and he helped talk me down a little bit. I decided to leave the athlete village and return to my hotel room. I began working on my bike to try and distract my mind. This has helped. Another thing that has helped is thinking about my Father-in-Heaven. I know that racing is a righteous endeavor and that Heavenly Father wants me to strive, to extend myself, to push myself to newfound limits. This is the spirit of IRONMAN. I know that I am an IRONMAN and so I will go out tomorrow and do my best.
I put on some music and began thinking about the people who have gone before me. The people like Sara Reinertsen, an above the knee amputee, she is an Ironman. There have been men and women who have overcome tremendous odds. This is the IRONMAN spirit. The Ironman is so many things to so many people. But to all, an IRONMAN is a tempering of the human body and it is a conquest, a victory of the human spirit. It is the most strenuous one day endurance race the world has ever seen. People who believe "IT" is possible, people who believe they can attain anything the world can set before them are drawn to these events. Often times it takes personal adversity, personal tragedy, and personal trials that one must overcome to realize that they too can accomplish anything.
So, here I sit. I am afraid of what lies ahead of me. I can tell you this is FEAR, RAW FEAR. But I am not the fear. I know this. I will go forward to conquer this fear, to extinguish it. It will probably haunt me until the gun goes off tomorrow. But when the gun goes off, I will have to rise up and become bigger than the fear. It is at these points, both big and small, that an IRONMAN is made. May God race with me.
posted by Schopke at 3/17/2006 05:06:00 PM
2 Comments:
Nice work, 5:55, that's fast! Looks like you were able to work though the pre race jitters and attain the goal you set for yourself. You must be very proud!
Yes very proud. It help motivate me to lose more weight, tain with more resolve, and beat this record.
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