Sunday, November 11, 2018

Diary of an Ultraman: Day 11

Time is passing.  With or without me.  In 12 days from now I'm going to be lining up on Dig Me Beach waiting to start my journey.  Today was another lesson in not resisting.  Just embrace what is.

Our day started early.  415 am to be exact.  I was sleeping so soundly when the alarm sounded and I groaned.  I was not ready to get out of bed.  One hour later we were leaving our hotel to head to the swim exit at Keauhou Bay where we were meeting my paddler, Sarah.  We dropped our van there and hopped in her truck to head to the swim start.  10k swim on tap.

It was still dark when we were getting our stuff together on the pier.  Bottles of nutrition, sunscreen, extra vaseline for swimming in salt water.  We clipped everything onto the kayak so it was secure, and helped get Sarah into the boat and off of the sea wall in the high tide.

The plan was to stop every 30 minutes to feed.  The first hour went by rather uneventfully.  By 90 minutes in I was thinking, OK this is good.  We can do this.  45 minutes later I declared that I had lost all will to live and I was quite certain that the sea was going to claim my body.  On another note, I've been thinking that rather than writing my speech for the awards banquet, I should probably write my acceptance speech for the award I'm getting for my performance as lead actress in a dramatic role.

Sarah was puking off the side of the kayak every time we stopped.  With 2 miles to go Dan was wanting to stop every 10 minutes because he felt bad.  And as much as I wanted to just take off and cruise to the finish, they were both out there for me.  I couldn't abandon my crew when the going got rough.

Eventually we made it to the Bay and once on solid ground, Sarah felt much better.  We chatted with a couple of locals for a minute and then started the process of hauling the kayak up to the car.  Meanwhile, Dan was looking pretty terrible sitting on the dock -- and I didn't realize just how terrible he felt until 5 minutes later when he was on hands and knees in the parking lot heaving everything he had consumed the previous 4 hours all over the concrete.

To make matters worse, I'm a sympathetic puker.  So when someone is puking, I'm not the one rushing to hold their hair back.  My response is avoidance, and then irritation.  I lose all ability to be compassionate and empathetic.  So weird, I know.  Plus I had been dreaming of pancakes from IHOP for the last 2 hours and now I knew that was off the table.

We dropped Sarah off at her truck and headed back to the hotel.  Shower, food and then I collapsed into bed and didn't set an alarm.  2 hours of blissful sleep after which I laid in bed another hour before I finally got up to get ready for my afternoon run.

416 pm.  I hop out of the van and start running.  I have no expectations for this run so I'm pleasantly surprised to find that my legs feel fantastic.  (Yay triple run day!!)  I bang out 10 miles and finish my run as the sun is setting over the water.

Laying in bed watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory tonight I don't feel rushed.  Tomorrow is a rest day.  I have a lot to get done, but I also don't have to leave my air conditioned room if I don't want to.  My schedule doesn't drop off quite as quickly as I had hoped this week, but again--- 12 days.  In 12 days the journey starts, and in 15 days it's over.  I'm trying to soak up every last ounce of preparation, every lesson, every opportunity for growth.

Aloha.




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