Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Merging into Traffic

I got my Triathlete magazine in the mail yesterday, and it came with a supplement magazine called "Road to Kona" (Kona, Hawaii is the site of the Ironman World Championship in October). It's so exciting - because it's the March issue, it kind of kicks off the season unofficially - winter offseason starts wrapping up, and triathletes everywhere start emerging from their holes and getting back into it. So it's full of articles and imagery and features about kicking off the season. And the Road to Kona mag is full of Ironman-specific articles and features, and all the advertisers hype up their products relative to Ironman - "...On course at Ironman Lake Placid, Ironman Florida, Ironman Wisconsin, and the World Championship in Kona" and "...see you at the Expo at all Ironman events in '06" - just stuff like that. But seeing it all in print, having the season unofficially start, it just gives things such a...momentum. Like when I used to work at camp and in the ass cold of February or March I'd get the letter saying welcome back, here's the summer schedule - it made things so tangible, and I'd find myself daydreaming all the time and making plans for the summer that now seemed more inevitable, less impossible for the dark of winter. So exciting, I swear if it wasn't 20 degrees right now I'd get Ol' Blue out of his hibernation and hit the road right this second. I can't wait for my first race. Can't wait for my first training ride. Can't wait for that first transition. Life is good!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read it too, but I thought you were slowing down on your posts so I wasn't checking as often. Glad to see you're still writing. I can barely run a 2-mile run without being sore the next day and counting down the minutes until the pain is over. I do like the way I feel after even a short run, though.

xt4 said...

Gadgets are half the fun, I think. But I'm a pretty gadgety guy, as you know. I think there's a happy balance between us (which I haven't found...) between keeping track of every blessed detail, and just going out and having a good time. I sometimes need to think a little less and just do. Maybe I'll do a blog entry sometime on all my favorite gadgets. That would be amusing to me, at least. How are you recovering after the race, Iris?

xt4 said...

Kee-ripes, a marathon in '07. Looks like it's in May, huh? That would mean a lot of miserable, cold winter training... I guess we'll see if I don't lose a limb during Ironman, or in the aftermath choose to gain 60 pounds and watch daytime television. Might be something to do, though (though I did swear after the last one that except for Ironman, I'd never put myself through it again). You should come and to Minneapolis sometime, too. Did you see there's some kind of little run/walk thing during the Wildrose High School festivities this summer? Sweeeeet...

xt4 said...

Oh, and Abby - nobody just starts off feeling great when they run. My very first run ever I had to stop after 1 mile and walk - I thought seriously that my lungs were going to explode. Like anything, it takes time and discipline. So say I.