Thursday, August 4, 2022

How Crazy Can You Get?

 How crazy can you get?  Can you believe I am seriously thinking of signing up for Ironman Texas yet again?  Don't I know this can only end badly and expensively?  Yes, I know, but I read about this ironman stuff and see the pictures, conjure up the memories, and I am like a moth drawn to a flame.  How crazy can you get?  

But what do you do about this inherent weakness of mine to follow the ironman memories and hype off into the abyss?  Supposedly I have a heart rate that is too low.  Supposedly, I have AFIB.  Certainly, I am an asthmatic and certainly I will be racing as an 80-year-old.  How crazy can you get?  

Truth is, this could kill or cripple me.  So, what am I thinking?  I am thinking I would rather be living like I have nothing to lose, than settling in, looking for a place to waste away and die.  Old age for me are desperate times.  I fight the urge more than ever to cave in and go for a life of rest and ease until I die.  I thought it would be easier by now but it's harder.  

Finally, I am a frontiersman.  It took me awhile, but I am blazing paths where few have gone before at my age.  But thanks be to God I still live as a child of hope.  I am still standing with my hand in the Father's and my face into the wind, knowing that however this turns out; finish or not, live or die, my eternal finish line is sure.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

The Triathlon Life: Would I Do It All Over Again?

 I see that the ironman folks I followed and appreciated so much are now gone from the ironman scene as participants.  And much of the gloss I had over the ironman event has dulled somewhat.  The challenge of it is inside me more  than ever now.  Maybe I have lost my way and then again maybe I have found my  place?

It makes me wonder if all this is winding down for me.  Are my present paltry training efforts but a few final spits and sputters before the engine dies?  If so, would I go this way again.  Would I walk this same road if presented again with the fork in the road where I chose triathlon?  I think so.  

Over the years I have collected photos and dialogue about each race I did - 53 in all.  I have used a few ink cartridges to print a couple copies of this book called, "My Triathlon Life."  Revisiting the stories and the photos make me smile and warm my heart.  Even though I am just inspiring myself, you might say.  It works.  And who knows but that those who come behind me might get inspiration from it as well.

I would do some things differently but mostly; I wouldn't change much.  The experiences as a novice were quite exciting and inspiring as well as the times, I got it all right. Yes, I would do it all over again.  

Yeah, I am probably getting a bit old to expect too much more, but I still do - just greedy for the good times I guess - but I am grateful to God for all that is my: "Triathlon Life"  book, and all that was in my heart and in my life, that brought me unto today.