The Excitement Within

Last night I had concern about the early morning 5:30 a.m. alarm set by the wife when the race is 8 a.m. with a 7:30 a.m. late packet pick-up. Excited about the race but not too excited to wake-up at 5:30, my dog's "murphing" and "woofing" at 5:00 a.m. told me, "Let me out! The sun is up and so should you!" I beat the alarm clock in awaking and now it is time to turn my attention to the race and hopefully come ahead of my age group or at least a majority of the them.

A light Continental breakfast consisting of orange juice, a bagel and coffee accompanied with newspapers I served to my appreciative wife who just turned-off the alarm clock announcement's it was 5:30 a.m. Instead of listening to NPR's pund contest, which obviously one could only stomach for so long, I turned the television on to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta who is my man! He knows everything about everything, at least health-wise. Jokingly regarding any matter that may arise such as a stalled car, my wife and I would turn to each other ask, "What would Dr. Sanjay Gupta do?"

It is 6:30 a.m. now and time to focus my nervous energy to a shower as I prefer to arrive at the line showered and ready to go. We only have a four minute drive to Soldiers Trail, my home court, where the race is taking place. My stomach is fine but I can feel the excitement growing within, actually, you know, 'excitement' gestates within the stomach. Soon, it won't contain itself and birth, hopefully when they precisely say, "Ready, Go!"