Reengage

This is what I'm talking about.

Last night, I put on my headphones, got into my own zone, and packed my tri bag. I jotted notes of things I need to remember to pack or pick-up today. I ate an intentional dinner. I hydrated.

I slept okay. Not great, but okay. I kept thinking about the race.

Today, among work and the Ironman meet-up and everything else, I have a couple extremely brief workouts to get in, then Amy and I are traveling tonight. I have registration forms printed out. Course maps.

I have that flitting in the center of my gut. The kind that makes my fingers wiggle, seemingly of their own accord, when I'm standing or walking around.

It's not nervousness, it's preparedness.

It's not minutae. It's details.

And it occurred to me that it's been an entire year since I've felt this way. I had some small road races last fall, but they were mostly social events. I had a half marathon in May, but I wasn't in form and didn't approach it with the same attitude. I had a really small triathlon in early May, but the nature of it made it easy for me to just go through the motions. Looking back, I'm not very proud of my attitude last spring. I took things for granted. I think I was still living in a bit of Ironman burn-out, but still. Then the injury, and the summer lost, and...well. I've covered that part ad nauseum.

But this is what I missed. All of it. This is race day for me. Not just the gun and the finish line and everything in between. It's the getting ready, the sorting of thoughts, the getting the mind and attitude right. It doesn't matter a bit that tomorrow's race is a sprint, that I'll be finished in less time than most people will be out of the water on Sunday. The distance of the thing is totally irrelevant, and maybe that's what I learned most this year. It's a race! It's time to test the mettle (heh, or the metal...), put the training to use, drive & thrive, push & plunder.

It feels so good to be back!

God I love this game.