We learn things growing up that stick with us into our adulthood. I grew up in a house full of boys who loved to eat…. We ate a lot and often.  Financially I don’t know to this day, how a single mother ever managed to afford feeding five growing boys.  She cooked large quantities of simple foods (like; Spaghetti in a huge pot with meatballs the size of cannon balls with enough garlic in each round to knock out a vampire at 50 yards.  All tasted wonderfully delicious and especially, my favorite was her Chocolate “Welly Cake”.  The fancy name came from the Welfare flour and sugar she bartered for and used to bake the cakes.

Cakes hot out of the oven need time to cool before applying the frosting… Ours never ever made it that long, I grew to love hot Welly cake without the frosting….With a full glass of cold milk, we are talking pleasure in a pan….frosting was only for show in my book.

I learned back then…Life is not about the frosting, it’s about the cake.

Every year I schedule a series of races as milestones that drive my training schedule. More often than not, I experience an emotional letdown after finishing these races.   For a while I began to wonder if I really even liked Triathlon racing.

I knew I enjoyed the training routine but I never seemed to get that extreme “thrill of victory” at race finish like athletes on the Wide World of Sports.

In 2015 during my 1^st full Ironman (An Ironman distance race starts with a a 2.4 mile swim, then a 112 mile bike, and ends with a 26.2 mile marathon run), in the last few miles of the marathon I felt this rush of adrenalin welling up inside….
I spoke out loud to myself.. “you are going to finish this thing baby”

I thought of all the work, sacrifices and support it took to complete this race like a great coach, a patience family and loving wife, plus a year of training that included 150 miles of swimming, 1,094 miles of running and 3,720 miles of biking.

This moment in the race was like a Welly cake hot out of the oven… and I enjoy it with every cold drink I could get my hands on…in the game, moving forward surrounded by highly motivated, truly amazing people.  Crossing the finish line was the icing and it was a wonderful moment… But for me life is still about the cake.