TriVeggies

The headline says it all, really. After I last wrote about my pre-race ennui, I continued to sit with the thoughts a bit – a lot, truthfully – and before too long one thing became clear: Life is too short to do things you’re only lukewarm about. And in my case, “lukewarm” would have been an improvement from the completely hollow sentiment I possessed about this race.

With that, the decision to drop out was easy. So easy, in fact, that it scared me a little bit. Often in my nearly 20 years of racing, I’ve held onto a dream or a race well past the time when I needed to let it go due to injury, illness, life circumstance, finances, preparedness, etc. If anything, I’ve been too stubborn when it comes to making the decision to drop out. But this one came as easily as an autumn leaf falling off a tree. And as soon as I canceled the hotel room, a wave of relief washed over me. Phew. Thank goodness that’s done.

The funny thing is, I’m actually very well trained for this one (and except for a few race rehearsal workouts, I intend to finish out the training cycle). I’ve adhered to my TriDot plan and have gotten stronger in all disciplines, especially on the bike. But the drive isn’t there. I have zero desire to compete. So, since I’m not an elite athlete who’s working toward a prize purse, what is the point?

The hardest thing about dropping this race off my schedule was the idea that I’m breaking a streak of long fall races. Since 2007, I’ve done either a marathon or a long-distance triathlon (half or full Ironman) every single September or October, and this year, I’m doing neither. It’s a weird feeling that I’m glad I didn’t think about till after I canceled my race, or I may have felt compelled to do it just to keep the streak alive. But nobody knows – or cares – about this streak but me, anyway. It seems a pretty flimsy reason to do something I don’t want to do.

Now, I pivot. First I’ll tackle the Great Pumpkin Ride at the end of the month, which I AM looking very forward to. Then I’ll careen my way into the offseason where, I hope, I’ll get stronger and cultivate my base in preparation for two half-marathons in the spring (plus some sprint triathlons to be named later). And I’ll take a bit of time off the grind of 7-day-a-week workouts, just to give myself a bit of breathing room. Something tells me it’ll be nice to shake things up on the schedule.

In the end, I keep coming back to how I started this post: Life is just too dang short to do things you don’t really want to do in your free time. Maybe that’s a race, or going to an event you feel you “should” do. Maybe it’s keeping up with an annual tradition that you really feel has run its course. Maybe it’s pushing forward to finish a book that isn’t resonating. My advice: Stop it at once. We’ve only got one run at this life as far as I know. We ought to enjoy the ride.