140.6 is the easy part....Part I.

The greater the adversity the greater the victory...

I had used this phrase a couple of time to egg on some of my friends as they went through some issues with their races. Now I suddenly find myself trying to take heart in them, to understand them.

Last year I did Ironman New Zealand this year I'm going back. Amid all the economic meltdown crap and the million other important things I should have on the front burner.I'm doing it. Part of me wonders why? Selfish, insane, just wanting to have something good to look forward to? I think part of it is just to see if my own words were an unfeltgeneric condolence or an actual phenomena.

Last year I was on a training ride with Claire as she was preping for Vineman and I had taken 2 weeks of recoup time. As we suffered up through the Connecticut hills she came along side and asked " so Bobby in all honesty how bad was it? How bad was the pain? The suffering?"
As I sat there and pedaled the funniest thing happended I couldn't remember the pain. Sure I was stiff after, and my heels were torn up like raw hamburger. It was pouring rain and my sinuses were running like a sieve but I couldn't remember the negative. Just being there to race was a blessing. Friends and Co-workers helped me out with encouragement and a little cash so I wouldn't be living off of PBand J for the week I was there, one of my buddies drove me to the airport the day after a snow storm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on us . I met some awesome people made a few friends ( from the states) made a couple of good friends in New Zealand. The other thing is if racing is supposed to be enjoyable why focus on the negative,like the suffering and injuries.Sure I blistered and have blood stains in my racing flats from that rain soaked marathon but I also had a PR in that marathon...a marathon PR in the ironman ...after stopping to use the facilities and doing a Blazeman log roll...a marathon PR after a 2.4 mile swim a 112 mile bike and cramming in whatever hodgepodge running I could.

So now this year...I have bills, I have school, I have family crisises, I have the same stuff I had to deal with last year...I'm trying to cram my training in the same way I did last year except I'm a little bit further behind because of weather and it took me so long to decide to enter. So now here I sit again racing the New England winter, an approaching race,bills, a college smester, other crisises that flare and recede... essentially March 7, 2009 is going to be the fun part.

R.D.