Under the Same Sky

How am I feeling this week? I am feeling good this week. I feel like I have pulled out of the hole that I felt I was slipping into last week. Or that I admitted slipping into last week. It took a little decrease in training hours and a whole lotta rest. On the couch, feet up.

Which is hard when you have a 7 year old on summer break!!!!

So I got creative with time. We have up time and some down time. And I am so grateful for our pool and especially Luc's love for it. This kid will swim all day long, like summertime should be.

So we alternate that with some down time on the couch. I have been able to get in a few 20 minute naps per day. My glorious husband has given me from 5am-9am to get done whatever I need to get done. He can work from home at times and hes made it very easy for me to make this final push.

In the Ironman Lake Placid outfit news..... I am going with Rachel's plan. Staying in the same thing the whole time. I swim with the sportsbra anyways so that will be on. I was a bit nervous about cycling 112 miles in Lake Placid in briefs. In a half Ironman I have never had chafing. But I didn't want to learn at mile 57.5 that.... I did.

Bike shorts highly annoy me. I hate grippers around my legs, I like em short and no one makes them short. I like a low waist and no one makes that either. To my specifications.

Here is where I have a true confession. I originally went to college to be a Fashion Designer. In high school I made all of my own clothes. And I still have the sewing machine. Without delving into that slice of history my point is that I can make things and alter things. Well.

So I looked through my cycling short collection. Don't like the leg grippers. Too long. Too high of a waist. Too much of a pad.

I needed the perfect Ironman short.

I picked up a pair of shorts and I looked at them.

Length..... 3 inches. Perfect.

Waist.... too high.

Pad... perfect.

I could make these into the shorts I dreamt of. So with scissors and a seam ripper I got to work.

I tore apart the waist band, cut 3 inches off of it and then sewed in a new piece of elastic. I tore out the uncomfortable leg grippers and hemmed the legs.

When I pulled them on I exhaled. These were the shorts I dreamt of.

I can swim and bike and run in them. In comfort, they look good but I don't care if they looked hideous.

In the Ironman you toss your appearance out the window. You think nothing of peeing yourself in front of anyone. Hell last year after the race I accidentally walked into the men's changing tent.... and I was so trashed I asked... "Anyone mind if I change in here?" to which I was answered.... "Please do." Getting stark naked after an Ironman in front of a bunch of guys who themselves were buck naked was not a big deal.

Ed asked me at camp in May when it was appropriate to "rip ass" in the Ironman, to which I replied "Anytime Ed, this is the Ironman. Anything goes."

There is nothing I haven't seen in an Ironman. nothing. Puking, shitting, wheezing, collapsing, smiling, cartwheeling, jumping, peeing..... and embracing.

I woke up this morning with the flutter in my heart that last week had softened a little bit. Two weeks from yesterday I will settle into my home away from home. We rented a house right on the run course and we will be with Nathalie and her guys then right next door to Sarah and Adam.

In my mind I can see it, I can smell it and I can taste it. I can hear the siren on Rich's bullhorn. I can feel the water cup in my hand. I can feel the water dumping over my head.

for the third time in a year I hope and pray to call myself an Ironman. For the fifth time in my life I hope and pray to call myself an Ironman.

In 18 days I hope and pray that everyone I am with makes the same journey as safely and as fast as possible.

I know all of you will be watching, waiting and sending all good things. In those low moments that we all face.... I will look to the sky and know we are all under it together. Whether in Hawaii, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Vermont, or New York we are all in this together. I will know and I will be smiling for so many reasons.

But most of all I am smiling for the opportunity and for the privilege.