Suffering at 2:1

Try following your highest impulse. Your mind rarely

invites you to explore things that are worthless -- and

your soul never does. Donald Neal Walsch.

Investing in self. Big concept. Investing in our health. Big value.

I am struggling with the opportunity to go up and race in Lake Stevens in two weeks. It is a course I know well, a 70.3 World Championship qualifier and the talented athlete who won our AG last year is both a old friend, read: arch rival, and two minutes faster than me. Kinda has it all: Challenge, opportunity, drama, dangling carrot, the thrill of the hunt.

Only downside is the $250 entry fee, along with another $325 payable immediately upon qualification to the Worlds in LV on 9.11, meaning I could drop a grand (travel expenses included) for two races. Worth it?

I should do it? I am on a minor roll. For the first time in my twenty-five years of racing I am BELOW racing weight. My fitness is peaking again, rising like a buttery new summer moon.

I even devised a clever wagering system to try to lessen the financial impact with the inducement that if I do anything OTHER THAN WIN, you hit pay dirt. At 2-1 odds no less. I will bet on me to win AG. For ten bucks if I do NOT win, you do, and pocket twenty. I think even Jimmy the Greek (or Henry the Bookie) would appreciate them odds.

That would certainly dial up the intensity factor. Could I, under this excruciatingly heavy mental albatross, stay within myself on race day and keep from trying too hard and blowing up?

Or should I just ante up (not eat for a week), enjoy the experience and take what comes? The old grin and beer it.

In the above quoted article from Donald Neal Walsch (quoting Brian Tracey) says the idea is to take 3% of your income and put it back into yourself, investing in your future. He opens by saying you may think that right now you can't afford this, and closes by saying that it is more likely that you can't afford not to. Investing in self.

I win, you helped. I finish second (or last) you win. At two to one.

I am not sure this is what they had in mind, but if I take the lesser road and DON'T race, nobody wins. That is my highest impulse today.