Things I've learned (or relearned)

Some totally random thoughts are below that I'll probably keep adding to as things occur to me as I emerge from my post-IMFL fog. Or is that Post Ironman Stress Syndrome (PISS)? I'm still processing a thousand thoughts and feelings - positive, negative, everything in between. These are in no particular order. Feel free to add your own thoughts or reactions in the comments!

• Just because someone is faster than you doesn't mean they know very much factual information about nutrition or physiology or biomechanics, and they can be some of the biggest offenders in spouting off arrant pseudoscientific nonsense. They may be fast in spite of whatever they're recommending, not because of it.
• Everybody has to work out what is most effective for them in terms of fueling and effort in a race. Experience is the greatest teacher. Ideas from other folks are great, but they don't have to run in your body.
• Speed is no indicator of character or intelligence, although some faster people may try to convince you otherwise.
• I genuinely like the majority of triathletes. I can't say that for many other large groups of people.
• The Ironman hype is a double-edged sword.
• Ironman is a corporate product, and yes, they're in business to make a profit.
• Entering an event a year in advance is helpful in planning and training. But HAVING to enter and pay a non-transferable entry a year in advance to secure a spot sure is a pain in the butt for lots of other reasons.
• You can be a complete triathlete without ever doing an iron-distance event. Or even a half Ironman. Or even an Olympic-distance triathlon. Though many, many folks will try to make you think otherwise.
• Coaches are sometimes not all they're cracked up to be. There are a lot of great resources out there that one can utilize besides a coach. If you have one that works for you, great! The personality/services fit is what is important. It doesn't mean that same individual will work for anyone else. Some stubborn folks like me plain just don't like being told what to do.
• Always be a little suspicious of anyone trying to sell you anything.
• Yes, it's worth it to make the attempt if you can still smile at the end of the day.
• Being in the middle of the long miles in an endurance event on race day can be not very much fun at all. Especially when the sun is setting and you have hours and hours yet to go.
• Doing a twenty-hour training week or two isn't so hard. Doing thirty or forty weeks in a row of 10 to 15 hours of training is what is hard. It's the equivalent of a part-time job or enrolling in college.
• Most people lie about their actual training hours. They often cite their top week or two as an average.
• Just one bad cold can really knock the stuffing out of you for well over a month. Use hand sanitizer more.
• There's very little "forgetting" to eat or maintain a manageable pace or use sunblock. There's planning or not planning.
• The human body can make some pretty amazing transformations in less than a year.
• Then again, going from flat on my back for an entire month in the hospital, desperately trying to keep my triplets alive, to attempting an Ironman 3 years later? Who would have thought it? I guess that is a lot to expect of any normal human body.
• Your body doesn't know there's supposedly an off-season.
• I still don't believe in overtraining. I believe lots of people get worn out from their training, or do more than what they're really trained for, and then don't get enough sleep nor take enough days off to fully recover. But that's being undertrained, not overtrained.
• Going hard for 12 hours is much more than double going hard for 6 hours. And mile 20 is still the halfway point in a marathon.
• I never heard any of the fast triathletes and coaches talk about how it's psychologically and physically extraordinarily difficult to run in pitch blackness on a strange course when you've already been going for 13 or 14 hours that day, and that I should have practiced it in advance. Maybe because they're already done and getting their massage by sundown.
• The people that you meet along the way are what make it worthwhile.
• It's sometimes difficult to keep the "hardships" of a race in perspective. When somebody dies in a race you're in, or another guy passing you has had a double lung transplant, or another has 77 written on his calf, that starts to put it in perspective.
• Any "suffering" on a race course is self-imposed and by choice, and therefore not genuine suffering at all. Temporary discomfort, maybe. Don't be a drama queen.
• At the end of the day, the sun still sets, and it will come up in the morning again, regardless of what happens on the race course.
• 99.9% of the people in the world don't give a rat's ass about triathlon.
• Karma - in terms of payback for good and bad actions, or punishment for hubris - is real in triathlon. But it takes its own time.
• In triathlon, some totally unhealthy obsessive-compulsive behaviors can start to seem darned-near normal.
• Whatever you did on the course, it's still not healthy (nor anything that I want to emulate) if you really needed an I.V. afterwards.
• Everyone who pays the entry fee has an equal right to be there.
• "I'm slow, I know, get over it."
• I'm still in the game because it's fun and challenging and endlessly interesting. When it's not any more, I'll stop.
• There are those of us for whom the Big Impossible Goals with a sprinkling of fear are the best motivators of all.
• Another great motivator to many of us are those people who said it couldn't be done. Thank you for spurring me on.
• It still really is about the journey and the process, not the destination or the outcome. Though that sounds like a huge cliche. And bringing home a medal would have been nice.
• Yes, I'd still like to earn the Ironman title. And no, thank you for your kind comments, but what I did was not enough to earn the title. I greatly respect and applaud anyone who has rightfully earned that title. But it would still be okay if I never did.
• I wouldn't trade the last full year of training under my belt, those dawn training rides in summer, and the thrilling experience of standing on that beach on the morning of an Ironman for almost anything. Well, a million bucks, maybe. There's a lot you can do with a million bucks. I could score some incredible race wheels with a million bucks.
• There are very few days that you will remember in detail for the rest of your life. Ironman Florida day last Saturday was one of them.
• My girlfriends are the best. They totally rock.
• And here's a special shout-out to a few of my very favorite tri-bloggers and now real-life pals and Ironmen: Shelley. Bolder. Comm. Kahuna. Trimama. TriBoomer. TriDaddy. Adam. And of course, Ellie. Plus a lot of others that I wanted to spend time with. I couldn't be prouder of your accomplishments and gladder to know you.
• It's sure good to be home and hug my husband and kiss my girls, and take more time to play with them again.
• I'm very, very fortunate to have the life that I do.