Dedication's what you need....

This is it, this is actually it. Tomorrow we board our Team Southern's S-Max and start a new Ironman adventure on the road to Germany.... how scary and exciting is that?! 49 weeks ago we started this blog and here I am sitting hours away from beginning a journey that has taken me a very long way.

The picture for today's post is from a very special event that we were privilleged enough to go to. Yesterday our very good friends daughter Jessica Kendal-Jones was awarded her black belt in Taekwon-Do. It's been a long road of hard work and dedication for Jessica for the last three months. And at the tender age of 11 she has shown the dedication it takes to be successful having spent months of training to succeed in all she believes in. It was a highly emotional and incredibly motivational evening as we watched Jessica swell with tears of pride. This black belt (with Honours) was not only for her, it was for her whole family who are behind her with the love and support that reaching these goals needs. As I start to focus purely on the race on Sunday I'll think of Jessica who was tested for over two gruelling hours on her own, no parents or spectators allowed. My road on Sunday will be a long lonely one too, but all the people I love and who have supported me are with me either in thought or in person, and that's going to make a huge difference when I'm out there, through the good hours and the bad. Like Jessica I've put the hours, days and weeks of dedication in and crossing the finish line on Sunday will be my black belt. If I'm lucky to match her then my Honours will be Hawaii. If I give it my all, if I give it my best then I can't have given any more and so on the day the result is kind of irrelevant, as long as I apply the dedication from the last 31 weeks then that's all I can ask and hope for. Hawaii or no Hawaii, you've got to have a goal and I'd like to see how near I can get to it before I give it up. I could be a million miles away but that's fine, as long as I know and I guess there's only one way to find out.

It's been a hard 31 weeks some good, some bad but they've all made a difference. On Sunday I'll know if they've made the right difference. I've done all of the hard work, nothing I can do now will change my fitness so all that's left to do is get the conditioning right for this next week. Lots of early nights, lots of water and good healthy fuel and most of all PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) one of the first things the students at Premier Taekwon-Do are taught.

I can't wait to get to Germany now and get into the Ironman groove, feel the buzz of race nerves and see that M-Dot waiting on the finish line for me to cross under it. A whole 49 weeks of posting my hopes, dreams, down falls, girliness, scattiness etc etc but as Morrisey once said...'The time is now..." and I'm ready for it. Fatigue is slowly drifting away and being replaced by replenished muscles and a replenished focussed mind. I could ruin it all by worrying about what's going to happen, but at the end of the day worrying won't get me anywhere, it will be what it will be.

I really want to say thank you to loads of people but I don't want this to turn into some dodgy Oscar type speech where I burst into tears, thank my mum & dad for having me and go on and on forever while the audience sighs with embarrasment and 'we've heard it all befores'. You all know who you are, every last one of you... those who read these posts...who give us words of encouragement and advice... who inquire and care (or just think we're plain nuts (Paul Larkins)... from the gym to Nigeria (where my Brother is working) you're all part of my journey and I'll take a little part of that with me on those roads in Frankfurt, I know you're with me and I thank you for being there.

So all that's left to say is... LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE... wuhoo bring that bad boy on!!!!

Oh and Tom... YOU'RE AMAZING, and I'm right behind you (maybe not in the swim though ;)

One last thing...

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." SCHWEITZER

I can't lose.

H. x