Que Sera Sera

Well, I wrote the CFA level 1 last Saturday. How do I feel? Relief. Like an enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Relaxed. I don’t think I completely realized how much this exam preoccupied my every task until it was done. How did it go? Well... it went really well.. I think. I know for a fact I made a few errors, and there were a handful I didn’t even have any idea where to start, but that is normal for the enormity of these exams. It was very similar to the practice exams that I took, and I was consistently scoring well enough on those so I am cautiously optimistic, but I will find out for sure in 2 months. There is nothing I can do about it now except wait. I put in my best effort, and if I happen to fail I would definitely be disappointed; but I have realized in the last couple of days that I wouldn’t be as devastated as I thought. This is something that I want, and I plan on going after it. If I happen to fail, I will just jump right back in to studying in September and re-write in December. Since the bulk of the material will still be fresh it will become more practice and review instead of re-learning. But we shall see, we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

This week is the last week of training before we cut back for our taper. The weather has been brutal, raining for the last 2 weeks which has made training outside rather difficult. I have had too many rainy, cold, and windy rides in the last couple of weeks. As long as Ironman is relatively nice, I think it will just feel easier then these last few training rides. As the race approaches I have started to second guess how prepared I am. I have done more running, but less swimming and around the same biking as 2011. I feel as though I have had a more solid training season than Ironman Canada, but we’ll see what the results say. I am aiming for sub 14 hours, but I think i'll be excited to cross that line no matter what the time. So much can happen throughout the day, that it's impossible to know the result of the race. However, I think knowing the pain I will be in, how long the day is, and the emotions that will come in to play will help make the day run a little bit smoother than 2011.

Finally, Ben and I are heading to Kananaskis Delta Lodge this weekend a much needed mini vacation. Training is starting to wind down, so we’ll train a little bit, eat some awesome food, hike around the mountains with Rudy, and get massages… just a weekend away to relax and reconnect since I have been so busy and preoccupied with this CFA thing. We booked the entire weekend on airmiles, and even got some gift cards through airmiles for our meals. We figure it is about a $1000 weekend, for free! Can’t go wrong with that.