Chapter NINE – Dust, Fog, Blindness

I had a plan.  I was starting last in my class today.  I’d stay close behind the rider in front of me and wait for a mistake and make my move.  Well, that plan was out the window one minute into the race.  It was so foggy you couldn’t see 100 feet.  The mist covered my goggles, which I had to wipe every 15 seconds in places.  In some spots I couldn’t see 40 feet!  It was the worst fog I’d ever seen down there.

To make matters worse,  the dust that would normally blow around you now stuck to me and my goggles.  It made mud on the lenses and when I wiped it, it scratched my lenses.  I had a washcloth on a wire tie hanging from my pack strap to wipe my goggles.  If you recall I had learned – DO NOT RIDE WHERE YOU CAN’T SEE.  I needed to finish.

The fog was so bad that at one point I had to take my goggles off.  Other riders had done the same.  It was better because you could just blink your eyes to clear your vision.  But a few minutes later when the dust clogged my eyes, I had to put the goggles back on.  But now they were wet and filthy on the outside and inside.  I could not see through them at all.  I had to stop.  I wiped them of bulk water with the now wet rag, but they were still foggy.  I held them in front of my exhaust which dries them really fast.  I repeated this process of taking the goggles off, drying them in and out in front of the exhaust, and putting them back on once more.

I finished the Tijuana Challenge and despite my difficulties, took satisfaction in that I was now in second place in the season championship points standings.  Three races complete out of four.  I was one of only two Ironmen to finish all three races so far. 

It felt good.  I was getting used to expecting to see the finish line.  We need to expect to succeed in life.  If we don’t expect to, we won’t. 

There was one race left.  THE RACE.  The Baja 1000.  I believed I could do it, and I had a deep desire to finish it.  Those are the two ingredients that make things possible.  Without them, it’s not possible.  But I had both now – belief and desire.

All improvement in your life begins with improved mental pictures about yourself and what you can and will do.  Perhaps we are limited by our imaginations.  But imagining ourselves accomplishing something is easy, we just need to dare to do it. 

This is the beginning.  Reality is not fixed.