Surgery is at 8 am tomorrow, so I’m doing everything I can to keep my mind off of it. I’ve been doing laundry, cleaning up the house, reading a book, watching television, and blogging to avoid all thoughts of eye-related things. I’ve gotten pretty darn good at compartmentalizing… although a shrink might call it “denial” instead.
Brandon mentioned tonight that he’s interested in doing a triathlon. Since the knee issues I had with the marathon, I’ve scaled WAY down given up on my running. I’m getting out once a week if I’m lucky, and we’re supposed to be doing a half marathon on Thanksgiving. I haven’t run more than 3 miles since about January, so a triathlon sounded kind of CRAZY when he said he’d be interested in it.
But, I must admit, I’m kind of intrigued by the variety. The marathon was so much of the same thing… for such a long time. I had an awesome sense of accomplishment when it was over, and would love to feel that again. But I just don’t think I could commit myself to doing another 26.2. A triathlon would at least break things up.
I’ve always outright rejected the possibility of a triathlon because of the distances involved in the IronMan. But there are lots of shorter triathlons out there. Swimming and biking would be much better on my knees, and would keep me in shape. The variety in workouts would keep me more engaged in the training. And I’d get to buy a bike!
I’m not sure that I could run after swimming or biking, much less both, but it’s an interesting proposition. The biggest thing motivating me to do the marathon was just that I wanted to put one of those “26.2” stickers on my car…. a triathlon would mean that I could get a cool “swim bike run” sticker. Plus, I’d finally one-up my little brothers at some athletic feat. They’re both ridiculously good runners (not only do they run, but they do it FAST and without looking like they’re going to die). They ran their first marathons when they were, like, 14. How the heck can I top that?
Maybe by beating them to a triathlon.
Maybe. We’ll see.