After watching STU’s video… I ask you all the question…
Is there a better feeling in the world then those final minutes before the gun goes off… When the butterflies are fluttering around the stomach… The hair on the back of the neck is standing up… the world goes silent for just a moment… anticipation…then the gun…
Personally, I like the start of a race better then the finish… Something about the start that just makes me want to toe it again.
I’m at my worst the night before - butterflies, lack of appetite, not good for others to be around, etc… The morning of brings a calmness about me. It’s weird, but I think I get through my head that there’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a small part of my life and whatever happens, happens. My IM finish was a zone-out, though - I had tunnel-vision, ringing in my ears and then snapped right back after I crossed the line.
Love that feeling! Very addictive!
No doubt its the start that I love the most. I can understand why people want a wave start for safety, but man when you are all about set off on a massive journey at the exact same time. What a feeling! I didn’t even like the pros getting the head start.
Interesting persepctive.
Have you ever seen the movie *Gladiator *with Russell Crowe? In the movie there is a scene where Crowe’s character, Maximus, is going into the arena for the first time as a Gladiator. That scene shows the final seconds before the match begins in the colliseum.
That is what the start of a race is like to me.
Those moments of anticipation before a race start sre agony to me. I just want to get *going. *The time seems very dialated- like watching and accident unfold in slow motion- and it seems like an eternity of distortion of time until the gun goes off.
Once the gun sounds it is a simple affair of doing what we do. But before the gun sounds there is that awful time when we are toe to toe with our demons of doubt, and that can be a terrible confrontation.
Once the gun sounds, they are all gone.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Is there a better feeling in the world then those final minutes before the gun goes off…
Off hand I can think of quite a few…
…but as they relate to training and racing, I’m with you. There is only hope, optimism, the occasional fleeting doubts and negative thoughts that tend to be quickly chased away by all the positive energy around you. It is in many ways an incomparable feeling, even to finishing as you say…
After watching STU’s video… I ask you all the question…
Is there a better feeling in the world then those final minutes before the gun goes off… When the butterflies are fluttering around the stomach… The hair on the back of the neck is standing up… the world goes silent for just a moment… anticipation…then the gun…
Personally, I like the start of a race better then the finish… Something about the start that just makes me want to toe it again.
In my previous, shorter races, the final minutes are not good. I’m like what Tom D described: very, very ready to get going! However, IMMoo 2006, my first IM, was completely different. I will never forget that moment, bobbing around in the water with a couple thousand strangers, who, somehow, now seemed very familiar. Just before the gun, I looked at the 4 or 5 people directly around me and asked, “Would you rather be anywhere else in the world right now?” With grins equaling mine, all said, “no!” I cannot wait for that feeling in 2007!
The night before I am usually pretty happy that it is finally here. But in the morning I get my game face on and stay very calm. Then all of a sudden those few minutes before your wave goes off the butterflies get going and its all I can do to stay in the zone, the hairs stick up and as someone has said before “its moving in slow motion” and then I know I am happy that I am a triathlete. I have done a lot of things in my life but that rush is very addictive and even now as I type this I get that feeling…