FIVE MINUTES

The view was breathtaking yet foreboding. I was standing ankle deep in the waters off the sugar white sandy shores of Panama City Beach Florida just before dawn, gazing out at the endless waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It was just me and my thoughts. It was just me and my dreams. It was just me and two thousand eight hundred other people all standing next to me wearing wetsuits, goggles and bright colored neoprene caps. It was the Ford Florida Ironman Triathlon and it was going to start in five minutes!

I know it was five minutes because the authoritative voice speaking out over the PA system announced to all participants that the race would start in five minutes. Five minutes. Hummm. Why five minutes? Why did he have to announce the five minute mark? I’m fairly certain every other horrified athlete out there knew damn well what time the race started. I’m pretty sure most of them also laid awake all night like I did trying to keep from flipping out emotionally over what was about to happen. They always give us a one minute warning for final prayers, crying and maybe a goggle adjustment. So why did he have to announce five minutes?

Five minutes can be a long time to stand still and wait and five minutes can be but a fleeting speck of a moment. Now I have to wonder when four minutes is the time and then three minutes. Is that all really necessary? I mean for gawds sake man I will be swimming two and half miles, then cycling 112 miles and then running 26.2 miles today….in Five..or maybe four minutes from now! Or is it three? Geezus why did he have to say five minutes!!

Now I have to stand here frozen in a trance which is a mixture of focus and fear until I hear the one minute warning. I can handle one minute. One minute is nothing. At one minute I go straight into pre race mental prep and readiness. At one minute the fear is gone and it’s all focus. That’s always been my strength, just before GO time is my moment of relaxation, my moment of reflection of what I put myself through to get here. My reward is that one minute.

Five minutes is torture! What am I going to do for five friggin minutes? I have to get rid of a significant amount of Gatorade but that will remedy itself soon enough. I can’t start a conversation because nobody can put a complete sentence together at that point, including me. I’ve done everything and more to prepare for the eleven plus hours of work ahead of me and that’s it. No…..I strongly feel that the announcer made an egregious mistake by announcing the five minute mark! Completely unnecessary, total BS is what it was! He probably just wanted to hear his voice on the microphone. What in the hell possessed him to do that to us!! No I’m serious now, this is killing me! There’s too much time and I………………..

            “Sixty seconds……….Attention all athletes, the race will start in sixty seconds….”

That’s better………….