Saturday November 2- 2019, God's willing , I will be participating in my 18th Ironman competition in Panama City Beach ( Florida).

My number 17th was in Kona (Hawaii) the site of the yearly World Championship.
 One has to qualify in order to be able to compete there.
And to quality one has to have done another ironman event and ranked  first in the age groups.
The participants came from  over eighty nations. It was fascinating to hear people communicating in so many different languages.

In every one of those Ironman, one or more of my family members would travel with me. Most of the time my lovely wife would volunteer.   On October  2018, it was my daughter Eman's turn.
It is a long way to travel from Houston to Kona. Because there is no direct flight,  we flew through San Francisco.
This was the fortieth  anniversary of Ironman organization.

 On Thursday October 11, there was a motivational dinner ; with Hawaiian dances and instructions on the competition itself.
It is customary that  the organizers would present, on the stage, the youngest and the oldest participants. That evening,  the youngest was an 18 years old German who came with his father who is a participant  himself. They  both came to compete together. It is a  wonderful opportunity to have a son or a daughter competing together in a big event like an ironman.
 The  oldest competitor was  an unbelievable 96 years old.
When asked about his workout routine he said that he does aerobic and anaerobic exercise every day. I wanted so much  to talk and learn from that man. Unfortunately I was unable  to find him among the multitude  of people. In addition to the 2500 participants,  the five thousands volunteer's, the families of the athletes and the organizers. It was an impossible task to locate him, even though I tried hard.
I any of these demanding arduous competitions, we all learn from one another.
That man inspired me and will inspire me for the rest of my life. He is in my mind whenever I am training as a reminder of what is possible.
To summarize ,for those of you who are not familiar with this triathlon; it starts with 2.4 miles swim followed with 112 miles bike and then end up with a marathon 26.2 miles run. All that in one day.
The start time is 7 am and the finish before midnight.
I am a very average swimmer. It takes me an hour and forty minutes to finish. All along way  I am earnestly  praying, to Almighty, to get me out of the water safely. When you have over two thousands people jumping in the water at the same time!! it is a struggle.
In Hawaii we face three challenges;  the heat, humidity  and the strong  wind.
My wonderful daughter was following my progress up close,  and giving me encouragement. To this day,I remember two very significant  incidents  took place during the competition.
With thirty miles left on my bike segment, my electronically shifting gears  stopped functioning. Without being able to shift gears it is impossible to continue. I came to a complete stop thinking it was over. I stopped on the side of the road in the middle of no where. I was helplessly  watching all the bikers go by me and lamenting my bad luck. Not to be able to finish was something that I have never experienced before. Thinking that all the training, hard work, and  the expenses   were for naught!!!  I was on the verge of tears ,when  two young men appeared  asking what made me stop.  After explaining the problem I uttered the word that  it was over.
  " don't think that way" one of them uttered while stooping  examining  my bike.
 He stood back up and  said that the electronic shifting battery is out. He then proceeded to manually shifting the chain to a middle gear. Then  Each stood on one side holding the bike and  helped me mount and pushed up the hill. While peddling I hollered my thanks.
Who were they ? Where did they come from? What were their names, and how was it possible that one of them discovered what was wrong?
And with that I was able to finish the last thirty miles.
The strange thing is that this happened in a rare isolated part of the road.

  In the early evening an  unexpected rain began to fall bringing a welcomed  cooling of the unbearable heat. After a while my shoes  and my socks  became all soaked wet and heavy.
 Not long after I felt as if my left sock had   folded on itself  causing pain every time I stepped on it. I stopped and took my left shoe off to discover that there were    no folds, instead  I had two large blisters  at the bottom of my left foot.  It became very painful to continue. The doubt slowly crept in.
- " the pain is unbearable"
-" There is no way to finish in time, why suffer?"
All of those dark thoughts added to my heavy legs and tiered body, It gave credence to the idea of quitting. It made perfect sense and very plausible logic and above all the desired  justification.
- " I have done this before, I don't need to prove anything to anybody"

Suddenly the  site of my daughter on the side of the road at night , standing  in the rain and cheering me up,  not only chased out all of the negativity and gave me  the mental and physical strength to continue. "I am going to finish this thing" . I kept repeating in my head ; ten more miles only ten more miles to the  finish line. I started visualizing  in my mind's eyes crossing the  finish line, I barely noticed that the rain had stopped.
 As I got closer the I started hearing the announcer's voice greeting the finishers. Soon my name would be announced.
That voice got louder and louder. Then came a steep down hill that allowed me to increase my speed. I was flying, the  adrenaline was flowing in my blood erasing any pain and  the memories of the sixteen hours of struggle.
Now I smelled the  finish line.
 Over a stretch of half a mile the road was lined up with wooden barriers behind them thousands of screaming, applauding, pound  barriers people calling my name in a deafening sounds. Then came  announcer booming voice that filled the night air;  " here comes number 130 from Houston Texas the seventy eight years young , Abdel Fustok you aaare  an  Iiironmaaan