Athlete's Amnesia

This started at a trip report on the Knob Hill Climb in Boone, NC.  The Knob is a 2 mile run - easy peasy, right - wrong!  This is 2 miles of PURE HILL, the kind of run that has your legs burning, your lungs burning, your head aching, your mind cussing, and I stand at the bottom of this hill EVERY year!  It's athlete's amnesia, that's what it is.

Athlete's Amnesia is a cousin to Baby Amnesia, the Kelly Melang definition - that state of mind where your brain blocks the BAD and REALLY BAD parts of an experience where you are left with only the good memories.  In birth, this is the "honey, we're gonna have a baby" to "here's your son" - I can't really remember much in between thought my husband has full memories of the "I hate you's, why did you get me...."  never mind.  In Athletes Amnesia, you remember standing at the bottom of a hill, or on the shores of that lake, or on the beach looking at the ocean, then remember the medal around your neck!  You remember BEING DONE, not what it took to get to that finish line.

In Athlete's Amnesia, like a fool you sign up year after year(hopefully not too make more kids).  You come back again to that race and as you start up that hill and feel ready to heave again, the memories flood back.  "This feeling of my insides burning, it seems familiar.  And the ache in my lungs and my legs, I seem to remember this.  This is so painful.  Oh yeah!  I remember this curve, I threw up over there!" 

Standing at the start line of your Half Ironman and the memories come flooding back, "Oh yeah!  I'm out here for over 6 hours.  Why in the H%LL did I sign up for this again?"  "This is the same spot I started getting the back ache.  Did my feet hurt this bad last year, oh yeah, now I remember!"  Your mind laughs at you as you kick, claw, scratch, puke your way to that finish line.  It then conveniently takes those memories and tucks them with the labor contractions, the stinky diapers, the cleaning up dog poop, the snot, the tears, the drool.

So you're sitting at the computer and an email pops up again, "Don't forget to sign up for The Knob Hill Climb....."  Stare at that and think, "That's not too bad, it's only 2 miles..." and start signing up.  Or you watch an Ironman on TV and think, "I've done a half, I could do a whole," forgetting all about the blood, sweat and tears that went into it.    Heck, I guess it's better than thinking, "How about another baby?"  Or "A puppy isn't THAT hard...."

Ever had a case of Athlete's Amnesia?