Untapped

"Don't drive angry." That's one of my favorite quotes from Groundhog day and hope that I forget it on November 4th.

I have been reading a lot of articles, most recently this one from Peter Reid in the November 2006 Triathlete Magazine, discussing the emotions that need to be tapped in order to win Kona. I do believe a correlation can be made for any person trying finish an ironman.

The thread through all the story's is that you need to get mad to win, not in an angry, frothy way but a deep down you want this more than anyone way. I think a win for me is finishing Florida at all.

But I understand turning off the switch and becoming somthing else. When I competed in strength contests, I always knew I could go farther than most anyone in the leg press competition. At a certain point when pressing 660 pounds (3x my body weight at the time), each rep with perfect 90 degree form, you either quit or you turned off the pain and got through it. I trained myself to turn off the pain and could always crank out another 20 reps. My best set was 70 repeitions at 3x body weight. I once also pressed 1,100 pounds for 15 rep's but that did crazy things to my body and pressurized my eardrums for three days.

In the infanty, at some point on a mission you stop being human and become an automaton; no pain, no illness, no thought except "Charlie Mike", military speak for "Continue the Mission". Its amazing when I think back to those times and how I did such things while at my sickest or weakest.

I remember IronBenny during his Ironman earlier this year. Nytro and I were talking as he came through my aid station on the run and he was mad, internally he was seething. I remember clearly the fire in his eyes. Its what helped him finish in less than 13 hours. He reached his untapped potential.

I know I didn't have or use that gear in my Ironman training and I now take that as a failure. I tried to train as close to possible to race conditons but did not tap into the inner "Iron Will" in me to Charlie Mike.

Knee hurts halfway through a 20 miler. Stop running, start treatment. Do three quarters of a planned iron distance swim and stop because I'm bored. I didn't do that often but I did. I rarely took myself to that place that I became less than me, but more than myself. But

I still don't know if I have what it takes to physically finish the distance, never done140.6 miles in one day. It would be awesome to finish the distance without having to reach deep, have it be just a long training day. But I can't plan on that. So hopefully I don't come up mentally short in Florida, that I have the strength to break through the barrier that oft times is the difference between survival and death, actual or precieved.

When you go there once you don't forget how to get there again but you remember how painful it was to do it. You leave a piece of yourself behind. Peter Reid and other Kona winners say much the same thing.

And in the end whether you come in first or last at ironman you learn a valuable lesson about yourself; did you give it your all, did you give to much or not enough and did you go to 'that place'.

Charlie Mike