everyone (and I mean everyone) has weaknesses

So sitting at the finish as riders came in -i got to hear what was tough for them.

Some people had the same fears/worries/weaknesses and here's a sampling of what i heard:

• fear of the heat and the toll it would take
  
• the unrelenting climbing
• fear of not finding water
• fear of finishing in the dark
• fear of not finishing
• fear of the dark
• fear their body wouldn't be able to handle the stress
• fear their mind wouldn't be able to handle the stress
• fear their equipment would fail

but what i learned from this is that EVERYONE to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place finisher to the person to who finished last to the brave(and unprepared brave)people that DNF'd - everyone had fears and weaknesses. some were able to perserve and some weren't. but to the ones that didn't - the KT will always be there ready to challenge them again!

Actually - there was one person that didn't seem to have any weaknesses. That was Lynda W. Now i've been following her and Dave Harris' blogs for some time. She is one crazy strong person. Once i saw a power file she downloaded. She was pulling the avg of ~174(IIRC) watts of power for 2 or 2.5 hours with a HR of 150. Ok...so i can put out 174 watts of power - for about 10minutes and I am totally maxed out. Oh yeah - and she's 5'2" and weighs 105. that is insane. Anyway - she's coming back after a shattered collarbone and to hear her talk - she was so into the racing part of it and was maxed out at the end, but I didn't hear she talk about her fears, just her determination to race as hard as she could and push her limits. She finished a super strong 5th place. big kudos to Lynda.

here's her blog post - she was so proud she was the tallest of the bunch. (yeah - i'm famous for being the *runt of the litter*) ;)