Life imitating... well, art. If art can also be seen as athletic pursuit than perhaps this whole training thing is an art in and of itself. So, I wonder, does creativity apply to the training and preparation required to run the Ironman? By that account, is a creative mind and heart a necessity to achievement.
After all, it can't all be just a logical desire to be healthy. And, in this case, it's not to "be the first" or "be the best". We're all treading over sculptures and accomplishments that many thousands have completed before us. In fact, in many cases we're copying wisdom and experience in order to forge our own path through the "mountains", so to speak (although that could be a literal truth given the topography of the Ironman Canada course).

Then again, isn't that what most art is?

I remember an interview with Leonard Cohen a few months ago in which he answered a question about those who believe he stole some of his ideas. He didn't deny it, in fact he said that he had listened to a lot of music, and read a lot of poetry, and who is to say which of that, or pieces of it, had an influence on any particular song or poem he has written. In fact, it would be difficult to imply the opposite.

Since the Ironman cannot be completely about health or experiencing something that nobody else has experienced, what is this "quest"? And is it really possible that the quest can end at the Ironman. After all, I have already completed it before. My desire to do another comes from a knowing inside that I have something left to discover about myself. I do not know yet what that is, though I have inklings of some of the possibilities: perhaps it is the question of "what am I capable of?" But, then again, I don't know if that could ever truly be answered, since no matter how hard I train or how strong I get, there is always something more I COULD do.

Maybe it is just to create a quest... To give myself something do for a few months. To discover another piece of myself THROUGH the quest that I previously didn't know. To come home at the end. Because I know it will never truly satisfy me, as even when I have thought I was satisfied, it made me more unsatisfied believing that "this was all that there was" for me to achieve. I now believe that is impossible, that we are never fully complete, nor have we achieved everything of which we believe we are capable. How maddening, then, to still believe in trying.

That old adage that it's not "the destination, but the journey" really does hold true. By that account, I hope that I never fully arrive, so that this Ironman in August is merely a stepping stone to another leg. That's comforting, and also unsettling, because while it means that it's not the "end of the world" for me, it also means that I have to work hard to push towards it. Because to not do that is to cheat on life with a half effort not worthy of the commitment that I made to myself.

"Success is a journey... Not a destination" - Arthur Ashe

Purposeful training!