Andi's Movement Towards Change

My family and I are back from Orlando, and I'm excited to post my race report. So let's cut to the chase, shall we? Let's start from the end...I FINISHED THE FLORIDA HALF IRONMAN. Mission accomplished, yahoo! Thanks, everyone, for your support. You help carries me throughout it all, and I am happy to share this success with you. Ok, rewind back to the beginning of the trip. Though my family and I arrived in Orlando on Wednesday, the official weekend didn't start until Friday. Throughout the week, there were signs along the road that informed drivers that an Ironman race would take place Sunday, May 18th, and to prepare for traffic delays. Hey, they'd be waiting for me, I thought. I wanted to get a picture of one of these signs, but I never did. I made sure to run a few miles, and to do a self-led shakedown ride for my bike (which thankfully made it in one piece after being checked on the airplane). The weather throughout the week was hot, and it wasn't going to ...

What I once viewed back in August of last year as an act of courage and confidence can now easily be viewed as an act of temporary insanity. I'm talking about the day I signed up for this half ironman. Last summer, I trained by the book, had a few races under my belt for the season, and was feeling good...so signing up for this race didn't seem like half-bad of an idea. Well, the moment of reality is quicly approaching now, and I'm eagerly searching to reconnect with that confidence. I get glimpses here and there, either through the encouragement of friends, a good workout, or simply self-trickery of the mind (I've been told I'm pretty good at that last one). But now suddenly it's six days before the race. The time is 11:45pm Monday evening, and I just got home from work. I'm trying desparately to cram one week of errands, chores and tasks into two week days before we depart on Wednesday morning. Everything that I had to do today, even if I bitched about it,...

It's hard to believe that it has been eight days already that I raced in St. Anthony's. As soon as I got back, my life was back to full force with work and family. The Florida 70.3, the biggest race so far in my 39 years of existance, is quickly approaching (set for May 18), but I am nowhere near being mentally or physically ready. Since I got back from St. A's, I've been a bit consumed with worry over a number of things. The most important has been my dad. At the age of 74, was recovering nicely from hip replacement surgery that took place about six weeks ago. I was so relieved that he was doing so well, especially since the last time I had a parent in the hospital, (my mom,) she didn't make it out alive. So with that history, I did worry a little excessively when my dad went under the knife. Last week, he re-injured his hip after getting his foot snagged in the door of an airplane on the way to a business trip. The result is a hairline fracture (at least) in the f...