New Year, Same Goal

It is the first day of a brand new year, and, apart from being slightly hungover from a night of reveling in Philadelphia with Mary (but sans Arsenio Hall) I feel no different. It is a rest day on the Boston trainng schedule, but I forced myself to the gym after napping through the better part of arguably the best day of sports television programming of the year...The Rose Bowl, The Winter Classic (even though I have not quite gotten myself to like hockey yet, it is pretty cool), Ironman marathon on Universal Sports, and the Mummer's Parade all in one day. That's right...it's all downhill from here.

I am watching the Ironman World Championship from 2007, and I think it is appropriate given that it is now officially the year that I will be attempting this feat. There is a blind man who finished the Ironman with a guide...incredible. In his interview, he says that he doesn't worry about what he hasn'tgot because he'll never have it. What he can do is be a productive member of society and be an example to his grandchildren. I wish I could record this and play it for some of my patients and for a lot of Americans in general. I just watched Rutger Beke, a man who finished 4th in 2006, walk across the finish in 898th place. Even as a professional, he doesn't thik that it is fair to the age-groupers to give up when a race isn't going his way. I never get tired of watching these finishes.

Tomorrow begins another phase of training...I will join the YMCA and start swimming. This is one of the many aspects of this training about which I know very little and about which I am terrified. That is part of why I am doing this to begin with. There is value, I think, in doing something that scares the bejesus out of me. There is value in conquering that fear, and after a few hundred hours of training, I figure I probably won't be afraid of it anymore. I think they call that immersion therapy.

When I wake up tomorrow, I am going to run 8 miles in the cold and wind, and then I am going to go for a little swim. For tonight, however, I am going to sit on the couch and watch Ironman replays and football. Happy 2010!