T minus 12 hours

It's just after 7 PM on July 25th. The cannon will go off in almost exactly 12 hours and I can hardly believe it!

There aren't many things we do in life in which we focus so intently on a single activity or goal. For the past six months I've put in anywhere from 15 - 25 hours per week training for a single event. Now that it is here it's nearly impossible to explain the range of emotions I've experienced in the last several hours leading up to right now.

Maybe I'll make an attempt to put them into writing during the free time I'll be working to fill once the event is over. For now, the one emotion I'll share is the incredible sense of gratitude I feel, mostly towards my wife and son, but also to the rest of my family, for the support. Triathlon is an inherently selfish sport that isn't possible without the support of those around you and I hope to sufficiently express to them how thankful I am for that. I have no doubt the gratitude I feel for their support will pull me through more than one of several expected low points tomorrow.

When asked by friends and family my reaction to finishing my first Ironman in 2006 the first response that came to me was that it was one of the best and worst days of my life. In one day I experienced an incredible range of emotions, often all within a few minutes of each other while trying to find the strength to push through the emotional and physical pain to reach the finish line.

Knowing that I'll likely have a similar experience tomorrow is difficult to put into words, so, rather than try I'll end it here, put on my "running playlist" on my iPod and work on getting a little bit of sleep before my 12 hours are up.