It's been too long between blogs.Looking back on my last Maine blog I can see how much my life has changed over the past few years. The remorse and pain I had in 2013 has been replaced with joy and happiness in 2017.
Reading the blog of 2013 it's clear that the Maine race that year was a breaking point - of no return. That's a difficult realization - that a 30 year marriage was done.
Realization was merely step one of a very long and very painful process. But like all failures, realization was the essential trigger to a new beginning. The vision of potential happiness is the spark of hope that inspired me to press on and complete the long and painful journey.
I returned to OOB this year - the name of the race changed from Rev3 to IronMan but that spectacular course was intact. Just like 2013 I reflected for nearly 6 hours as I swam, biked and ran to the finish. But this time I had an amazing woman waiting for me at the finish line with a beautiful smile.
During the race I thought about personal evolution. We all evolve as we mature. Along the way, relationships and friendships may come and go but the relationships that survive are the ones that evolve together, usually from shared interests. From what I've witnessed, few relationships truly do this.
Life is a collection of relationships. That is the essence of our existence - relationships. I've been lucky to find a special relationship that is built on shared interests, which is evolving together. Life is good again.Realizing the death of a failing relationship, and having the courage to go through the very real and prolonged pain of pulling out of that relationship is the only chance we have to find a healthy, evolving friendship. Accepting a failing relationship as inevitable is unacceptable. It was a long journey but it was well worth the effort.
Back to race, I did well. I'm still strong on the bike but I need to drop a few pounds next year to get my running pace back to where it belongs. I can do that.I'll be back next year
