Barry Brooks - Final Post before Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Clearwater

(I took this from his main blog www.Ironmanatlaw.com, but I wanted the team to see it.  So this is me citing the source)

This Saturday is the last race of the year for me. The one that I have had on the calendar for more than a year now. Although work threw a wrench into my training this past month, I still feel as ready as I ever have for a half Ironman. And I better be! The competition at this race is going to be unlike any I have ever faced. A PR is not going to be good enough to crack the top third in my age group. I'm finally racing with the big dogs. Does that make me a big dog? Because for some reason, I don't quite feel like one yet.

Ryan (who will be making the trip to Clearwater to watch!) told me before Coeur d'Alene this year to "Race like you belong, because you do." I made the mistake of not truly believing that last June when I had all the problems at Coeur d'Alene. I'm still not fully convinced. Sometimes the only way to truly believe that you belong with the big dogs is to get out there and run with them. That way you at least find out one way or the other. And that's what I'm going to do.

You can watch the coverage of the race at here. Just find theIronman 70.3 World Championships, click on "athlete tracker," and you can follow me throughout the morning (I apologize for not having a link directly to it, but it wasn't up when I wrote this. It should be easy to find on Saturday.).

Thank you to everyone for their support this year. I will post a full report when I get back to Texas next week.