The Storm before The Calm

Today is calm, finally. I have been able to relax and exhale from all of the stress from the past two days. I've had some time to rest my mind, and I slept like a rock like night so my body feels great as well. As the race gets closer and closer I must steal Nikki's words to describe how I feel:

"I'm psyched outta my mind for Sunday!!!"

The forecast shows for a hot day...it will get up to 96 degrees while I am running the marathon. Ouch! But I welcome the challenge, I wouldn't want a cake walk to the finish line.

Okay, now to tell you about the last couple of days...NIGHTMARE.

Wednesday

• Found out at 11am that my 4:20pm flight was canceled but couldn't do anything about it because I had class until 1pm
• Spent a total of 3hours on the phone with the airlines, car rental, etc. trying to clean up the mess
• Got confirmation for a flight later that evening connecting through Vegas, would put me in Phoenix by 1am
• Nikki took me to the airport and I noticed a direct flight leaving for Phoenix in 30 minutes, so we sprinted across 2 terminals
• The guy at the counter told me the standby list was 15 people deep and that I didn't stand a chance
• I hung around anyways and sure enough, only 4 of the 15 people were there, so I got on the flight!
• Problem: Luggage was checked in at AA and headed to Vegas... I was on a US Airways flight to Phoenix
• Realization: This is not good!
• Got to Phoenix and no luggage of course, filled out a lost luggage file and left to go get rental car
• Showed up to Brad and Lorie's house about 10pm with only my carry-on
• Hopeful for my luggage to show up in the AM so that I could do some light workouts on Thursday
• Tried to sleep but plagued by the possibility that my luggage is in outer space

Thursday

• Woke up and called baggage people first thing, no luck
• Went to pick up packet at race site and stood in lines for about an hour
• Called baggage people again and they could not locate my bag
• Noon: I think I lost it! Seriously started freaking out
• I began to make a list (THANK YOU Kathi Werden, you salvaged some of my sanity) of everything I would need to get to replace almost ALL of my gear
• My sister Sarah called me and let me know that her flight was canceled as well and they couldn't put her or my mom on a flight to PHX until Monday, so she canceled the trip
  
• Overwhelmed
• Headache, a big one. Feeling sorry for myself? a little bit!
• The whole time I am talking to Nikki and she is feeling all of this stress with me - thank you baby, you saved me from a mental breakdown!
• Sam Whiting then called and offered to fedex me his wetsuit (we wear the same desoto 2 piece size 5) and all of his race gear including bike necessities - thank you Sam
• Gail Leveque already had an email in to local bike shops and personnel to help as much as possible
• I was gonna get this done, how could I not with all of these amazing people helping me?
• And then in that moment I realized what AMAZING PEOPLE I have met in triathlon and how in that moment so many people came together and were willing to help me
  
• Wow
• I then decided to go to the airport just because I have learned that there is only so much you can do over the phone...it ALWAYS helps to be there in person to work through things
• So I showed up and they gave me hope that for some reason they did not want to share with me over the phone: "Sir, your bag 'should' be on the next flight from Vegas which arrives in 30 minutes."
• Hallelujah! But I tried not to get my hopes up because...well, I don't know why. I just found it hard to trust the whole process anymore
• So I went to the bagel and coffee shop, ate, surfed the web, and prayed
• I wanted my bag to show up soooo badly, I didn't want to have to go through all this other mess...
• I went back downstairs to baggage claim after some coffee and saw the big blue duffel with the nike swoosh on the side and I am not kidding you I got emotional about it.
• Relief. Relief like you have no idea relief.
• Breath
• And off to pick up my bike from tribiketransport.com
• Stood in line for another hour - it was in the sun too and I remember thinking after 45min "this is hot" -- later on the way home I found out it was 78 degrees. god help me when I'm running and it's 96! anyways...
• So I finally get somebody to escort me to my bike and neither of us could find it for a bit. Par for the course, I thought. It was the last bike on the end, hiding a bit.
• Ah, I get the first sense that it's all going to come together.
• I take my stuff back to Brad & Lorie's and then get back in the car to meet Aaron Patel up at 87th and McDowell.
• I never found him, and I swear I was at that intersection. Now I'm wondering if it was 82nd... I drove back home in rush hour and looked at the clock and realized I'd been driving for 2 hours with no bike ride.
• What a day
• I rode around the neighborhood for a bit and then headed in
  
• Lorie cooked an amazing dinner and told Ironman stories. Brad told stories about his working life. It was a fabulous end to a hell of a day.

And like I said, today has been so peaceful. I was listening to "New Day" by Robbie Seay and I truly felt it and was grateful for new beginnings and the fact that we can put yesterday behind us.

And then I listened to "Fix You" by Coldplay and closed my eyes to try and feel what it'll be like to cross that finish line on Sunday with Nikki and mom and dad there... More emotions surfaced as I began to feel connected to the big picture and realize that all this has nothing to do with me racing but everything to do with life's experiences

Heavy on my mind lately are the souls in my life that are either on their way out or just arriving:
Mandy and B, both in their last days...
Strohm and Campbell, newborn babies

More to come later. Nikki arrives this evening and I can't wait to see her. Next time I blog will be after April 13th.

I'm sure there will be a lot to tell...