Your attention please: Flight 7600 from Dallas Love Field to Houston Hobby Airport is being delayed due to adverse weather conditions.
Cinco: Now, we are going to be late for work! Mom said that if we were late one more time, we would be obligated to work all weekend! Why did you think that we were flying out of DFW instead of Love Field, Ralph? It is much further from the Ranger's stadium to get to downtown Dallas than Grapevine!
Ralph: Cool it, man! I was just trying to be helpful. No one else wanted to take the lead, so it was up to the youngest male cat to take over, since T.J. is not here. I did the best I could. Besides, it is good that we are gonna be working all weekend. It will take our minds off of what is going to happen on Monday!
Cinco: What is going to happen on Monday?
Ralph: Bad things, man. Those always happen on Mondays. Don't you read "Garfield"? Now, pipe down so I can finish reading this book before we get back to Houston. Maybe I can at least read the prologue and a couple of chapters, anyway.
PROLOGUE
When a competitor undertakes running a marathon, every step they take beyond the thirteenth mile burns body fat and muscle tissue. Somewhere between the twentieth and
twenty-third mile of the 26.2-mile run, the competitor’s physical reserves are exhausted, no matter how hard they train for this grueling physical test of endurance. All that they are
left with are the competitor’s mental capabilities and their determination for the last, exhausting three to six miles of the run.
When a competitor competes in an Ironman distance triathlon, the marathon is the last thing the competitor does, after swimming two-point-four miles in the open water,
then cycling 112 miles over hot, hilly terrain. The challenge is to do the whole event in less than 17 hours.
My goal, after starting my training at the age of 35, is to go that distance.
My name is Jedidiah Harper, and what follows is my chronicle of events leading up to my attempt to finish my first full Ironman distance triathlon. (This account is loosely
based on a journal that I kept that chronicled my training in hopes of completing this, the most grueling of events; the ultimate test of physical fitness, endurance, mental toughness, and strategizing. The chronicle of events is true; only the names have been changed.
(I chose the first name “Jedidah” for me because the literal translation of the name is “Blessed of God". That is truly how I felt as I did the research for my book.)
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