The Nightmares are here

One of the signs that a big race is looming is that the thought begins to infiltrate my dreams. I have never considered myself one who dreams vividly much less remember the dream. But last night, I awoke after having my first dream about a race in quite some time.

In it, I was definitely in New Orleans. I believe I was having a good race until I got to the run. I guess I lost any desire to run because I started walking and talking with another athlete. Other than offering brief words of encouragement I have NEVER chatted with people on the run. I don't get those who find the run to be social hour for their misery. But in my dream I was chatting up a storm. That is until the athlete had the desire to run and left me.

I remember coming down the backstretch with a very slow jog. In the dream, I was carrying something. The finish line cameras were there and they didn't even want to take my picture because of how exasperated I was. And I didn't care. I just shrugged my shoulders and walked across the finish line.

The funniest part of the dream was in the post race food. It was held in a banquet hall and all I remember were hot dogs, nachos and donuts. LOL. I remember there being one other person in the room and as he was leaving he reminded me to turn off the lights, for I was the last person to the party. I fixed a hot dog with nacho sauce and began the walk to retrieve my bike.

Obviously I don't think my race will go like that. In fact, when I often dream about a big race, I dream about the worst case scenario. In this case it was walking the entire run and having no good post race food to eat.

I spent some time this morning wondering what all it means. It comes as no surprise that failure is not an option for me in life. Failure is probably something I fear. When you go into a race, there is ALWAYS a degree of uncertainty that can lead to failure. Failure can be completely breaking down during the race or not meeting a time goal. Either way, failure is a reality in any race when you factor in variables such as weather, terrain, nutrition and injury. The Ironman World Championships teach us that every year when in the last two years the defending champion hasn't finished the race...one due to food poisoning and the other to mechanical problems on the bike.

So my dream signifies a couple of things to me. First, it is the reality that the race is upon me. Two weeks from today I will be rolling into New Orleans. Second, it provides perspective on failure. I like to think it prepares me for the worst case scenario. Understanding what failure CAN look like provides me the opportunity face some of my fears in the situation and do whatever I can to control situations. I call it mental preparation