Day Forty-two - Just Two More Days To Go

It's hard to believe. The triathlon's just two more days away, the day after tomorrow. My training's done. I'm ready for it. I did another 2K swim, 20K bike ride and 5K run today. Raced a rabbit at one point and got chased by the world's biggest, nastiest and persistent horsefly at another point. I truly hate those things.

Later in the day, I went back to the lake with Cass and we floated around for a while with capped swimmers churning through the watere all around us. People getting ready for Sunday. Most of them were swimming slowly, splashing instead of reaching. I get the feeling more and more that swimming is the least favorite event in a triathlon.

Tomorrow is the orientation session in the new Killarney Lake lodge. That's about all I'll be doing that's related to Sunday. No workouts, no swimming, no biking, no running. Stretching, yes. But the rest of the day is going to be laying in the sun (weather permitting), mall crawls with my daughter, and in the evening...movies and pizza with Cass and my son, Erik. They're both going to be there to cheer me on. And they'll be wearing War Bug t-shirts with my web site banner on the back. So will I. As a reminder about what got me into this.

But then, I'm glad I did this. I could have just entered the triathlon, skipped the training, and farted around with the bike and run (after all the swimming I did this winter, that would have been a snap in any case). But training regularly for it and taking it seriously has hatched a bag full of ideas for the novel. In fact, the triathlon training along with a canoe trip down the Eel River with John Heinstein, led to a great idea for a twist on the event itself.

And most important, when Sunday rolls around, I won't feel like some half-assed tourist.

And I may even do this again next year. Just for the hell of it.