I was so nervous going into the weekend. I really didn’t want to mess up. I had hopes that maybe, just maybe I could be the best. I had no real reason to expect that I would be the best but I thought about it anyway. It really would have been cool to be the best. Hell it would have been cool to be one of the top ten, but I knew all of that was a pipe-dream. Hell I didn’t even train for the event!
All I know is that I didn’t want to mess it up. When my friend asked me to participate in the triathalon I thought “What a cool idea!” and then as it got closer I definitely got nervous. On the race day I wondered if I was even going to make it to the top of the mountain.
Luckily I was able to make it to the top with a pretty good time (41:09). And now for the real stuff…
The last quarter-mile was pretty tough, really steep and demanding after all of the work to get to that point. Once I got to the last few hundred yards there were people on both sides of me encouraging me to finish strong. “Only a few more feet to go and then you can rest” some guy I didn’t know said. At that point I had my hand pressed into my quads using my arms as walking aids. I leaned back and picked up my legs to run but they were like concrete. Luckily they finally moved and I ran across the finish line where a man was standing holding out some water. I grabbed the water and as he took the chip off my ankle he said “You can lean on me…” By the time I figured out what he said it was too late and he wasn’t leaning anymore so I just walked over to a wall to sit.
As I sat down I felt so proud of myself. I was hoping someone would be there to hug me or congratulate me but there was no one-just me. I thought about my parents and my family and how I wished they had been there to see me finish the race. To have them see that I was able to finish something and give it all of my effort.
I moved over to sit down at another wall because I had some guys ass in my face. Once I got to the other wall I continued to have feelings of elation. My friend showed up and gave me that hug I was looking for and that felt pretty good.
So much more happened throughout the weekend but I’ll leave that for another post. God knows I have a lot of stuff to write down. Lately I’ve been missing the target on so many things but I definitely have been trying my best.