Friday, September 8-4:00 p.m. (34 hours to go)

(Did you feel that you were ready to do this task again?)

It didn’t matter anymore what I felt. The wheels were set in motion and this was happening whether I was ready to or not. “Alea iacta est.”

(Who said that?)

Julius Casesar when he crossed the Rubican River.

“The die is cast.”

Friday, September 8-5:00 p.m. (33 hours to go)

Two plus hours before Shabbos and I decided to pack my transition bags.

(Your what?)

My swim, bike and run gear had to go into bags.

I laid out everything I was going to need on the bed. My eldest says that it is a neuro-divergent “thing” that I have to lay everything out so I can see what I’m doing. I told him it’s an ADD thing. Once I dropped off my bags there would be no going back to make changes.

(That sounds stress inducing.)

It was. The officials at World Championships were imposing limitations the likes of which I had never seen in 14 years of racing Ironman.

(Was time was bag drop off?)

Tomorrow afternoon.

(But that’s Shabbos.)

Remember, “I don’t roll on Shabbos.”

(Yes, we know. Your first article in The Jewish Link borrowed its title from the movie “The Big Lebowski.” You still haven’t told us how you…)

Read on.

(OK … fine. So, what goes into the bags?)

Swim: goggles, swim cap and gel.

Bike: bike shoes, bike top, bike shorts, socks, bike helmet, tire changing tools, bag of bike nutrition, sunglasses, tri kippah and tzitzis.

Run: sneakers, run nutrition…

(What do you mean “run nutrition?” Did you pack a PB&J?)

Nah, I have a three-part strategy: Branch chain amino acids (BCAAs) caplets reduce fatigue by minimizing the production of ammonia in the muscle because ammonia leads to “phosphofructokinase” which leads to fatigue.

(You made up that word.)

No, look it up or ask your ninth grader what they learned in biology class. I packed gels.

These are 100 calories packed into a tube the size of a pack of chewing gum. This is the fuel that keeps me moving.

(I’m afraid to ask what is inside.)

Maltodextrin, water, fructose, sodium citrate, potassium citrate, potassium sorbate, citric acid and other good things. They are 100 calories, 22 grams of carbohydrates and 20 mg of caffeine to help my ADD brain focus.

(You are making this up.)

No, look it up or ask your 10th grader what they learned in chemistry class.

(No, I mean caffeine helps you focus?)

Very much so. It is a stimulant. The part of the brain that regulates impulses benefits from caffeine. There is a theory that the reason that great discoveries were … well, discovered during Sir Isaac Newton’s time was the switch from drinking wine to drinking coffee. For that one, ask your ninth or 10th grader what they learned in history class.

(You mean the guy who discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head?)

Yeah, that guy, but…

(Here it comes…)

Sir Isaac Newton didn’t discover gravity. He explained it scientifically. He looked at the way the apple fell and wondered, “Why did it always fall straight to the ground and not sideways? Was gravity the same force holding the Moon in its orbit?“ Newton showed that if the force decreased as the inverse square of the distance, one could indeed calculate the Moon’s orbital patterns.

(So?)

Before Newton, Aristotle said rocks fall because that’s their nature.

(So, Newton was God-less?)

No, his relationship with God is complicated, but according to Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, Newton wrote about the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Newton is also responsible for inventing Calculus.

(Why do I need Calculus?)

Newton figured out that “acceleration” of an object, AKA the change in speed of the object,  could be modeled by his relatively simple laws of motion.

(So, you can predict how fast you need to pedal to make the time cut off on the bike?)

Precisely.

(Did you pack anything else?)

I pack salt to prevent muscle cramping.

(What about Gatorade?)

Yes, but that would be provided on the racecourse. I lined the bags up against the wall, right next to the bike for tomorrow’s check in…

(…which you still have not told us how you were planning to get around the prohibition of carrying in a public place on the Sabbath.)

David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].