Pre-race jitters? Who? Me?

~Mike Romaniuk, on the Secret Thoughts of Men

This blog post is post three of a four part series. Read Mike’s first post here. Look for Mike’s next post after his race.

In just a few minutes, my teammate and I will be starting the hardest 6 to 8 hours of our year:  The 2009 Cumberland Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race (MOMAR).

It’s 7:15 and on our way to the start line.

 Is my food mixture right?  Are those allergies or swine flu?  What happened to yeterday’s bravado?  Where is my confidence?

 We found out the order of the course events late last night and it’s the hardest possible order:  easy up front to challenging at the end. 

Crap. Does everyone think that way or is it just me?

Dinner last night is not sitting well this morning. I slept horribly and did the race all last night in my dreams. I have a headache and forgot my shampoo.

My left shoulder still hurts from last week’s injury. I think it hurts worse.

(my race partner calls to me from the background) “Ready to go Mike?  Feeling good?”

 My reply? 

“I feel 100% ready to kick some ass. Forget trying to be in the top 22% – let’s aim for the top 10%!”

Weakness and fear are not an option to share for a guy.

The race starts in 105 minutes. Here we go.

About Mike Romaniuk: In 2002, Mike rode his go-kart around the world, but didn’t raise money for anything. He did, however, find fitness and embrace it. In 2004, just one year after returning, Mike was allowed to shoot the starting gun at the All Mikes, Only Mikes Marathon.  In 2005 he completed that same marathon under a pseudonym. In 2008 he completed the Autumn Ostrich race, winning by a beak.  Mike lives to blog about the Secret Thoughts of Men for Girlgetstrong. (note: no ostriches were injured during the fabrication of this biography)