An Eventful Weekend.

I spent Friday and Saturday waiting for my father to die, which he has persisted in not doing. He has improved physically, and he has “improved” mentally, in the sense that he is no longer comatose but occasionally opens his eyes and grunts and squeezes in response to voices and commands. I do not know what the prognosis or next steps are, but imminent death does not appear to be one of them.

In the midst of this, I summoned the energy to continue my training. I’m less than three weeks from my half-Ironman, and I am going to complete it unless it kills me first. So I did a 33.5 mile ride in two hours, followed by a 5.7 mile run in one hour. Emotionally it was hard to work myself up for them, especially because I was trying to do so on about two hours of sleep. But physically, they felt really good.

I don’t expect to get a lot of sleep the night before the race either. So this was very good training. I got my hydration right. I got my fueling right. I got my paces right. This was a three hour race-pace brick that if I can duplicate on race day will have me finishing with plenty of time to spare. I’m pleased with the effort, and I’m proud of myself for finding a way to do it in a difficult emotional place.

Sunday BB (who paced me during the run and literally carried my water on a bike) and I competed in the Philly 10K, which is a great and fun little race through the historical districts of South Philadelphia. We didn’t try to go fast, and we averaged about 10:09. It’s a runner’s race, which means that I finished down near the bottom of men, and men my age. I don’t care. It was a good shakeout run after the long work the day before.

I’m feeling confident about my ability to finish this race. I’m less excited than determined. My new next door neighbor called it a “bucket list race”. Something that an average man like me might only do once in a lifetime, just to prove to myself I can do it. I think that might be right. This has been so hard. So much work. So much time. But I’m nearing the finish line and I am going to cross it.

It’s a difficult time, emotionally and physically. But I am going to do well enough.