Ironman Cramming

Benchmarking Ironman: RunTri's 25 Toughest Ironman Races Check out the full details at RunTri.com

There are 19 days to Ironman St. George and I fear I'm heading smack into full Disaster Magnet panic mode. (How ridiculous is that? Only I could be "afraid" of panicking.) I don't feel so alone going to St. George because I regularly read the blog TransitionFour. Check out his latest infographic on Ironman St. George - race registration numbers are dismal. I find it very strange that there's an Ironman race that couldn't sell out because it's labeled as "too hard." I mean, COME ON! This is Ironman - it's supposed to be hard. As crazy as Ironman athletes are, I would expect them to be flocking to this race just to say "I did the hardest one!"

Female registrants are waaaay down, only 18% of the total (compared to 23% in 2010), and registration is down for the older age groups. This is both good news and bad news for me:

• The bad news about small age groups is there are very few Kona slots - maybe just one.
• The good news about small age groups is fewer people are willing to take on the challenge.
• The bad news is that it's possible only the best triathletes will be there (because of the course difficulty).

So, yeah, in my mind, the bads outweigh the goods at this point, and panic creeps into my thoughts nightly. It's giving me flashbacks to the weeks before finals in college. I'm even having the nightmares of being late to the test. Most of my conscious panic involves the following:

• fearing I've not done enough hill training to perform well in an Ironman with 6000 feet of climbing
• worrying that, with my horrible nutrition issues, I've had no way of testing my fueling for a race that may very well last over 13 hours
• wondering if I've REALLY done enough running to tackle an extremely hilly marathon after the swim and the bike (this anxiety translated into a 2:20 long run at 5 a.m. this morning)
• fearing that because I can't get out of town until two nights before the race, if something goes awry with my travel arrangements to Utah, I won't have enough prep time
• fearing a swim in seriously COLD water
• wondering if my allergist is right that I won't get asthma in Utah's dry conditions
  AND...
• the usual sleep anxiety