Creating Reality

It was race morning. The sun was up, the mood was light. I watched as the crowds of athletes jumped into the water and prepared for the start signal. The gun sounded and the athletes took off. I lounged around enjoying the morning and at approximately 8:20 am I thought to myself, "holy shit! There's a time cutoff! I need to be done with the swim in an hour from now!" I tracked down Roch Frey who was in the official Ironman office. I told him my problem and he told me I better get in and swim as fast as I can. He also told me that maybe the kayakers would let me finish and continue on to the bike if I told them he said it was OK. I raced back to the water, donned my wetsuit and jumped in. The swim was serpentine. The lake was really shallow so I could actually run parts of it. And there was a rope, like climbers use, that I used to pull myself along the 2.4 mile course. I finished in 39 minutes, 1 minute before the cutoff time. (And possibly a new world record?) Getting out of the water, I resumed my lassaiz faire attitude. I had all day, right? I found myself in transition with 3 duffel bags. I took my time and sorted through my gear, looking for the stuff I needed on the bike course. After an hour in T1 I was finally ready to mount my trusty steed and head out onto the bike course. I smiled at my family and gave a wave. And then... I woke up.

Ever have dreams like this? Anxiety dreams? With all the details pinned around how you manage to screw up on race day? I'm sure this is my minds way of making sure I am prepared, that I've checked and double checked and triple checked all the details. But, seriously. Do I have to have these bizarre dreams before every Ironman event? Isn't once enough? It's not like I'm going to forget the last time, when I showed up late to the swim and took to long in transition. Or the time before that when... Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, I was glad to wake up out of this nightmare this morning. Though it did give me a good laugh. 16 days and counting. Better sleep now while I still can...