Today's Workout: A final word

This will be my final post until Monday. Finally, finally, it has stopped raining. I'm sitting here watching the sun slowly rise and reflect off of Lake Placid. There is some fog covering the mountains, just a beautiful day.

I'm heading out for pancakes in a few minutes. From there I will do a short bike and run, drop my bike off in transition, and also leave my bike and run transition bags. This is it. 24 hours from now I will be in the water hopefully close to finishing my first lap of the swim. My plan is to take everything slow from a mental perspective. In the swim I'm thinking of it as four 20 minute intervals. On the bike I will probably segment the course in 10 mile segments. The run I'm taking one mile at a time. With any luck I can catch up to my riding partner KR on the run and we can encourage each other to the finish line.

I intend to feel every mile of this experience emotionally. I will meet other athletes and volunteers, I will take mental snapshots of every mile on this beautiful course, I will be talking to my Dad a lot. He has served as my inspiration on this journey and I know he will be with me on the course when I need him most. As a kid when we were challenged by some event or injury my Dad would say, "Be tough as nails." It made sense at the time but as an adult I've hammered a few nails that bent, nonetheless, they did not break. Tomorrow I will write this on my hand in my Dad's honor and when the going gets tough I will use it as my mantra.

As I sit on the precipice of this achievement I feel so blessed. Thanks to all who brought me to this point, now the baton is clearly in my hands. I fully intend to cross the finish line or die trying.