As of the writing of this post, race morning is a mere 6 days, 15 hours, and 52 minutes (plus or minus a few seconds) away. The anticipation and expectation setting for this year’s race began last year on Saturday, 12 September, when I registered for this year race.

It’s funny the roller coaster of emotion, the nervous energy, and the positive and negative thoughts that one goes through when planning something that far in advance. There are not too many things in life that we plan that far out; weddings, birth of a child, graduation, buying a home, Ironman Triathlon.

I don’t know about you but it is easy to set ourselves up for disappointment when setting expectations on how we want something to turn out. Not suggesting that setting expectations is a bad thing; far from it; just that the human mind is an amazing thing and can sometimes help us set unrealistic expectations of ourselves. Conscious deliberation, goal setting, and realistic expectation setting are keys to success at everything in life. Unrealistic goals and expectations set us up for disappointment and self-destructive behavior that can be difficult to overcome.

In the end we will not be judged by how much money we make, how big our home is, what kind of car we drive, or what our time was for an Ironman Triathlon, or whether we even finished. What we will however be judged on is whether we were passionate about it, whether we gave our best given the circumstances of the given day, whether we pushed ourselves outside of our comfort zone in the pursuit of our goals and expectations, and whether we did so with compassion, empathy, and humility.

As this years journey to Ironman culminates with the race next Sunday I contemplate on the events that have brought me here, on whether I have met my expectations to this point in my training, and whether I will meet my expectations of tomorrow.

For me, Ironman Triathlon is a microcosm of my life. It provides me a vehicle to test myself, mentally and physically, and to provide a daily challenge and reminder of what this life is really about. I awaken each and every day with anticipation of whether I can meet today’s challenges, whether I will meet today’s expectation of myself; to do the best I possibly can given the circumstances and obstacles that may be presented.