Phase 5 : trifuel.com

Phase 5

Source: Tracy Korn

The default word is acceptance. For what it is, for what it will be. But I don't agree completely because it's too passive a word; implying something tolerated, or against my otherwise will or preference. And that's just not the case. I set out to stand here, exactly.

So I suppose instead I'll call this phase belief. Nothing passive about belief. It's a conscious decision made. An investment of feelings and thoughts. It's an action and not a result of something inflicted or interjected most inconveniently into a life.

A belief is chased down and caught. It is a product of effort and the byproduct of faith fused by the consistency of experience. This is accurate. This is what I feel. Phase 5 then, is belief.

1. Relief, 2. Transition, 3. Vulnerability, 4. Paranoia, 5. Belief.

These are the five stages (at least as I've lived them) of tapering for the most monumental race of my life.

Logically, in this phase, I asked myself what I believe. What have I worked to know and to trust and to build upon? And most importantly, why will I need these things at Ironman?

No matter what, I believe that happiness is a product of progress and/or perspective. Measurable growth, and in the absence of it, the knowledge that it still exists in the grand scheme of the situation. In this mix, I suppose perspective can be called faith. This is important because if I lose sight of my happiness on that course in seven days, I will have faith that it hasn't lost sight of me. That it will be just a matter of time before it comes back to me...10 minutes to the other side of the Prozac patches. Always.

I believe that I will not be out there alone. There will be friends out there with me whom I've actually met and are physically here, and friends I have never met or aren't physically here (but who are no less close to me, and in some cases, even more).

I believe that I've earned my place; that I have the right to stand next to the other athletes in Madison, Wisconsin on September 10th, and to race with them as one of them.

I believe that no matter how the day turns out, it is mine forever, so I will make the best of it throughout it.

I believe I finally understand that what I've been chasing all these years are my limits. I haven't yet found them, and I hope to God I never do.

I believe that anyone can do anything they choose to do if they do not sleep with excuses, and if they are passionate enough about what they want to hang onto it no matter how hard it gets to ride.

Anything is possible if you believe.