Nightmares
Last night I think I slept reasonably well until early this morning when I recall a dream I had but being this close to my Duathlon and the dreams contents it was definitely a Nightmare.
I was doing the run although out of sequence. I was running the 3km run as the 1st stage. I ran to the point I was aware was where you round to do the home stretch and while I was running back people were meeting up with me but from a different and shorter course point. I asked one of them why they were rounding there and they said that is where the Marshall pointed them to go. I was annoyed (polite word) as nobody was there to direct me to round there.
I got back to the transition point and went in rageing about the situation and they didn’t really have anything to say. I then had to look for my bike, which some official helped with but when I got to it my tyres were deflated. We pumped them up but the air kept escaping so knew there was a hole. Now I am ashamed to say I don’t know how to change my tyre, but no-one around which there were about 8 people were willing to help and then we realised I didn’t have a spare tube either. (I do have a fix it kit with a tyre mending kit in a satchel under my seat). As we were trying to fix it people were coming in and taking off on their bikes and in the end there were only two bikes left and me of course.
At this point I panicked as knew I would not be able to recover the time if able to finish at all and got so upset as I had worked so hard that couldn’t believe it was cheating, non helpful staff and a puncture that stopped me achieving my goal I have worked towards for 5months.
I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep and realised it was 7.50am so I got a sleep in but one I could have done without.
I decided to go for a walk as today is a rest day so don’t want to do anything strenuous but needed to do something as it feels odd not getting up to exercise.
January 21, 2009 @ 11:15 am
One thing that Richard gets me to do before an event is to write down all the things that could go wrong on one side of the page, then all the things I can do to either prevent it, or fix it.
Check your tyres the night before for glass. And obviously make sure the tyres are at the right pressure.
You’ve seen the course details. And I dare say you wont be the first one leading the pack so you’ll have others to follow.
I guess you know the dream was a little irrational, but I know it can still knock your confidence a bit.
Sometimes no matter how much work you’ve done, you can’t help the outcome. Remember I trained for an event I couldn’t participate in. It stinks, but it’s a reality.
When I’m there in February I can show you how to change a tyre if you like, a little too late for this event. Or you can do a search on YouTube, there’s plenty of videos there.