What was Ben thinking?

Daylight savings time, I’ve never been a fan.  Having grown up in Arizona, one of the three states that does not observe DST, I remember hearing about it the first time after we moved to Colorado when I was 10.  I was sure the other kids were playing a trick on me, the new kid, when during school they started talking about moving our clocks back.  What?!?  Who moves the clock?  That is crazy!  It took some convincing and to be honest I never really understood or appreciated DST…… until now.  We move the clocks back this weekend giving me an extra hour of sleep Saturday night and an hour earlier of sunshine for the race Sunday.  Now that I think about it I am sure it is the ‘spring forward’ I always had a hard time with.

 I feel nearly paralyzed with anticipation.  The long term planning is done and it is a little too soon to do the short term stuff – packing my backpack, loading up the van etc.  This is the calm before the storm.  Not unlike planning a wedding or getting ready for a baby, it seems there is a lot of stuff to do to get ready early on and then nothing until it’s TIME!  Fortunately for me all of my labors were spontaneous, I honestly have no idea how women with planned births do it.  Knowing the date ahead of time would make me crazy.  On the other hand I certainly wouldn’t want someone coming up to me on a random day and saying “this is it, race day, ready or not.”

Adding to the uncertainty is the weather.  Honestly, the weather Sunday will be gorgeous and perfect for the run.  The bike will likely be quite chilly especially for someone who is wet already.  There have been numerous discussions on my tri board about what to wear/bring on race day.  Until now for all my races I simply wore the tri top and tri shorts I swam in for the entire race.  I did wear a wetsuit at Gateway but once that was off I was wearing my tri outfit.  It will be too cold for that Sunday and I have to consider wearing arm warmers, full finger gloves, an extra shirt, warmer socks, and a jacket.  I will likely take everything and make decisions that morning about what I will be wearing. 

This race is somewhat of a mystery.  Usually when you do a race there is the uncertainty of how fast you will go but not IF you will finish the race.  The mystery is how my foot is going to feel, I really have no idea.  I have full confidence I can finish this race and I have great supporters but I know they are concerned.  Running 13.1 undertrained with a stress fracture probably isn’t the smartest thing I have done.  Lucky for me I have lots of people who support me, primarily my wonderful husband.  There is a good chance they are having conversations about me with each other but they also recognize this race is very important to me and I am just a little hard headed. 

It is going to be a gorgeous day.  If all goes well the race will take me somewhere around 7.5 hours give or take.  I will enjoy a great deal of that time, I will be thankful for the opportunity and for my AMAZING support – Ken, Cory, Brendan, Kerianne, Avery, Lilia, Dad, Karen, Dave, Simon, Eli, Justin, Melissa, Eric, Betsy and the many  others who take time out of their day to cheer on some crazy triathletes!