i am swamped after a week of vacation in door county, wisconsin and thus have yet to put fingers to the plastic and create my recap of my half iron experience. in lieu, for now, a random assortment of race pictures follow ::
NB :: if you haven’t checked out my new project, the athena exhibit, please do!
i am sitting in a room that has more purple and green than usual. green shoe laces. purple nail polish. green sharpie. purple ribbons.
all of this purple and green means, naturally, that tomorrow is race day and i’m writing names on the back of my jersey, thinking of my goals and my inspirations.
my goals have changed a lot from when i started this season. when i first joined TNT, it was because i wanted my endurance training and racing to be more than just mine . i’ve raced three marathon and countless half marathons for me, but joining TEAM was supposed to be about be involved with someone bigger than my ego. for the most part, TEAM is bigger than my ego — but as race day inches closer, my ego creeps to the surface. somehow, as race day approaches, i lose sight of the purple and green and i start to get lost in outcome-based expectations and results.
when the season started, i wanted to improve my time from last year. heck, i wanted to kick butt and take names. i wanted to podium with the athena’s and party like a rock star. while it’s not impossible those things will happen, i know my training this season has not been as consistent as last year, and i do not want whether or not my experience was a success to hinge on a few minutes or i place i stand for a photo. i want my experience to hinge on how much fun i had, on how many times i smile, on how many people i high five. i want my experience to about kicking the butt of my seriousness and taking down the names of those who have been affected by cancer and wearing those names on my back. i want this experience to be colored in purple and green and elation.
for all of you that have donated your dollars and time and karma, there are not enough thanks. i offer to you my race tomorrow. the names on my back and the smiles on my face.
