So all of a sudden there are loud knocks on my door, bang, bang, and bang. Pete, are you ok, just a minute I yelled from the bathroom of my hotel room. Why were they calling for me already having lost track of time. Looking at the clock and realizing over an hour had gone by. Looking at myself, the messy and I mean messy tub, realizing holy crap, only one of my legs was shaved. It was dinner time 3o minutes ago. Boy I didn’t think this was going to take so long or be so hard.
What had started in the journey of our caravan conversation about why shave your legs, which quickly made me decide to do it, without giving it much thought. Type A personalities make this mistake often I have learned. What I learned from this experience can help a newbie triathlete prepare for the big day, and it is this. Lesson one; plan every step of the way.
My planning for this leg shaving was miserable. Didn’t have the right equipment, mindset, you name it, I wasn’t ready. The exercise was taking its toll on me mentally and physically. Also it was wearing out not only me but my equipment. Halfway through the process when the knocks on the door came, I realized this, I was screwed.
What I did next was a decision I would second guess for months to come, I decided to clean up myself with my one shaved leg, and one not so shaved leg, and head down the hallway to my 20 or so friends and dinner. It was two days until the race. Boy did I have a lot to learn. As I approached the door which was open a crack, I could hear the buzzing of stressed out Ironman triathletes.
As soon as I walked in the room erupted, “LETS SEE IT”, “YOU SHAVED”, how did they know. Concealing my embarrassment was not possible, so I slowly pulled up one side of my sweats revealing….not my shaved but hairy leg. “I didn’t shave, what are you guys talking about.” They didn’t buy it, my one foot of hairy toes and one foot of shaved toes had given me away. Slowly exposing my shaved leg, the room erupted with laughter and applause, believe it or not, high 5′s followed as did stories from them of their first experience of shaving their legs.
The lesson is this, have a plan, put the plan into a checklist for race week, and make sure to cross your T’s and dot your I’s. Don’t leave any stone unturned and don’t make any changes the week of your race unless it was planned accordingly. Clippers would of made the world of difference my face razor didn’t really suffice. But in the end, the race went great, and the week in Wisconsin turned out to be one of my favorite weeks of my life.
