6 days out

Ugh...my stomach turns when I think that my race is in six days. What once seemed like an eternity is now under a week. Everyone has been asking me if I feel ready and I think I am starting too, despite the fact that it is suppose to be in the 90's and I will not be wearing a wetsuit for the swim. Truthfully, the only option I really have is to finish the race so there it is...I feel ready, I am ready, I will soon be an ironman. This has been 7 months in the making.

It's Sunday morning 5:45am and it was so nice to wake up this morning knowing all I have to do is an hour and a half run followed by a 45 minute swim. I love tapering! I also love waking up and not being sore and tired from the day before. Who would have thought a few years ago that I would ever attempt something like this? Running a marathon is one thing but running a marathon as the third leg of a race is just plain crazy.

I suppose I should stop for a second and walk through the race for those of you who will get this and are not sure what an iron distance triathlon is. All triathlons involve three things in the same order. First you swim, then you bike, then you run. It's that easy. Triathlons range from the sprint distance to international, olympic, half ironman and then the full iron distance. The full iron distance race consists of a 2.4 mile (4000 meters) swim , a 112 mile bike, and the run is a full marathon (26.2 miles). You have to do all of these distances in less then 17 hours to earn the title of Ironman! You have to cover 140.6 miles in one race.

The race I am doing is in Clermont Florida and is called the Great Floridian. This is the 17th year that this race has been held and it is the largest privately run iron distance race in the country. Past participants say it's a tough one and several people have told me they respect me for trying to "tackle" this course for my first full distance race (that makes me just a tad uneasy). I can't imagine any iron distance race being easy and each race I am sure has its challenges so I am going into next weekend knowing damn well that it isn't going to be easy. They don't call it an "iron"man for nothing I suppose.

Well it's 6:30am now there is something that I must do...time to lace up the Mizuno's and head out for my last long run.