How Four Turned Into Eight

A few months back, I mentioned the National Senior Games, and that I planned to do four events: swimming, cycling, running, and triathlon.

The actual scheduled (pending specifics on what swimming events are which days) is now out. It’s turned into eight event days: three days of swimming, surrounded by a triathlon, 10K run, and 10K, 20K and 40K cycling events.

Oy vey.

It’s doable, I am telling myself at the moment. It’s fourteen months away. Plenty of time to work out worry and panic prepare. I can do this. The events are spread over 11 days. There is time off built in. No hotel stays needed, though there is a lot of driving.

On the one hand, I’m stepping into a big pile of unknown on this. I’ve competed two and three weekends in a row, but never something like this.

On the other hand, I may never get another opportunity to do this.

On the one hand, I hurt thinking about it. On the other hand, I’d hurt more if I didn’t do it. It means the next fourteen months have very little else in the way of commitments or outside activities. It also means having a really handy excuse not to do things I hate (“Oh, sorry, can’t go there/do that; I have training in the morning/this evening/all weekend.”).

At the moment, the little square paper with the schedule is staring up at me from the desk, like an orderly reminder with little shaded boxes and numbers and “X” marks and dates. It’s a conscience and a call to do both the impossible and idiotic.