On Saturday night, Mark and I hosted a low key barbecue with some of our training buddies. Unfortunately, although Mark had invited everyone at 5:30-6, I thought that everyone was due to arrive at 7. So, there I was, sans makeup and jewelery, holding a hairdryer to a freshly painted set of house numbers, when folks started arriving.
I think that set off a nightmare that I had last night about poor preparation for the Ironman.
In North America, Ironman races begin at 7 am, but in my dream, I somehow thought that it started at 8:30 am. I woke up at 6:55 and had to practically fly down to the race start and just managed to squeak past the start line by the last allowed time. Phew! But I also had failed to bother packing and fuel or special needs bags for the bike and run. With races that are multiple loops, you can pack a 'special needs' bag that you pick up at a designated place. In them, you might have warm clothes, additional fuel, a headlamp for the last half of the marathon - all critical stuff for such a long race.
In my dream, I was simply completely and utterly lazy about preparation, despite having trained for the race. Since I'd had such a late start for the swim, I farted around having lunch afterwards (lunch! - I even went back to the place we were staying) and didn't get to the point of even thinking about setting out on the bike until 2 pm, meaning that I had only 10 hours to bike 112 miles and run a marathon. Because the normal rules of mathematics don't have to work in dreams, this mean that I'd have to do the bike in 6 hours, and then run a 2 hr marathon - all without fuel or special needs bags. I knew it was hopeless. I knew too that I had disappointed Mark who was being typically supportive, but I knew he was disappointed in me. That was distressing. I don't know what went wrong - why would I have trained for a year and not bothered to prep for the actual race? Why would I have slept in and not been aware of the true start time? Why would I not have prepped my bike the day before?
Not sure what to make of this dream, except that I know it won't be my last! I wonder if ever there will be one that features me crossing the finish line in triumph, having run the whole marathon? I can dream, can't I?
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