May 15, 2002 (pre trip)

These last few days have been spent either training or packing. I drive to Whitefish on Friday and make the official departure on Saturday morning. It looks like I will NOT be swimming in Whitefish Lake after all. I had a friend check the water temperature for me and it was 40 degrees and I’m not a hypothermia candidate. I’ll look for local pools along the way to log my 8 miles of swim distance.

I did some checking yesterday and it looks like I might be entitled to label this endeavor as:

“The worlds longest self-supported triathlon”

From what I’ve been able to find, the worlds longest ‘supported’ triathlon is the Deca Triathlon in Mexico. Check this out: 38 km swim, 1800 km bike ride, 422 km run. That’s 10 Ironman distance triathlons in a row. The 7 competitors for the 2002 race have 14 days to complete this endurance fest. Now that’s truly nuts!

Of course, my loose definition of ‘self supported’ is the key to allowing me to call my tour the “world’s longest”. By that definition, anyone who has completed an Ironman triathlon without accepting food or assistance in any way from the aid stations currently holds the self-supported world record. But not for long.

I was supposed to go for a 6 hour ride on the tri bike today, but I woke up to MORE SNOW!

Me going: “Huh? What’s this all about!”

So – I’ll do my last 3 hour run today instead and leave my last long bike ride tomorrow for better weather.

I leave you today with this advice: Remember the Zen master who said to the hot dog vendor: “Make me one with everything” (Thanks Mike!)

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