a good healthy dose of confidence

as you might know, in exactly 13 days, i'm undertaking the longest and possibly hardest race i've ever entered...the steelhead half ironman. 1.2 miles in the water, 56 miles on the bike, and 13.1 miles on foot. kyle, hebda, and myself have a friendly wager on the race. he who loses, buys dinner for the other two. he who wins, gets to pick the restaurant. the idea is that you don't want to lose. well, if you know me, you know how competitive i am (who else do you know that will race a fullsize caterpillar forklift down the street?) so 2nd or 3rd just are not acceptable.

up until this morning, i was nervous about not only winning, but just finishing. 70 miles is a long fucking ways. today, hebda and i went out for our final big workout before the taper. 52 miles of biking followed by a run for as far as our legs will carry us.

the bike section went smooth as can be. we averaged ~19mph including some slow sections by the AVP Pro Tour on North Avenue beach and me dicking around a couple times to either chase down a honda or see if i could get to 30mph without a draft (i can!) With the ride finished, my legs are feeling pretty loose and i still feel like i have some gas in the tank.

We transition and head out on foot to see exactly what kind of mess our bodies are going to break down into. Long story short, i get through 6 miles at a 7:30 pace and by the time we get back, i'm almost positive that i can hold the pace for 7 more miles (yea, it would hurt, but it could be done).

so the dose of confidence that the title speaks of:
i now know i can do the full distance without a problem. now it's just a question of how fast. the way i figure, i'll be the last one of the three of us out of the water by 4 minutes on hebda and 9 on kyle. i can make up the time on hebda on the bike but kyle will probably put an additional 16 minutes on me on the bike. i have to make up 25 minutes on the run. i know he's shooting for a 2 hour run, but if i can hold my pace, i can get him...especially if i can see him in front of me. if that happens, it's all over.