What My First Ironman Means To Me
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Completing an ironman means something different to everyone. I don’t have some TV-worth story about overcoming adversity, battling against all odds and accomplishing the unthinkable.
For me, there are a million reasons why I’ve come to this point. After more than 10 years of dreaming I am ready to toe the line at my first iron distance tri.
For me, there are a million reasons why I’ve come to this point, but I’m feeling strange without some singular major driver that brought me to this point. To be perfectly honest, I’m sitting here thinking “Why am I doing all this?” and am stumped. There has to be SOMETHING more than just “because I do…”
Fun? Absolutely, but there are a ton of other things that are fun that don’t require this much time and financial investment along with all the pain and time away from friends and family.
Excitement? Sure. You know that Navy commercial that says “If somebody wrote a book about your life, would anybody want to read it?” I like to think I do some pretty cool shit in my life. I’d definitely want to read a book about me and I’m not anywhere near the good part yet. I’ve still got plenty of adventure-filled chapters left! But that still isn’t a primary reason why I’m here…
Fear? The more I think about it, this is a major one. Triathlons are almost like scary movies to me. I am terrified, but can’t take my eyes off the screen. My adrenaline is pumping and I’m in a dead stare straight ahead, but won’t stop watching. Each time the fear of one triathlon distance subsided, I stepped up. Sprint to Oly. Oly to Half. Now I’ve got four half iron distance tris under my belt and they don’t scare me nearly as much as they once did. It is time to step up and be terrified all over again.
If you aren’t terrified of the iron distance, you probably haven’t read enough about the damage that can be done to a human body over 140.6 miles. Cars are designed to travel those distances. My body wasn’t. At least it wasn’t until I trained it to be. I’m still not 100% sure that it is. I’m confident that I’ve done all that I know how to in order to prepare it, but I won’t really know until I cross that finish line.
My first ironman may not be some emotional story of a cancer patient’s return to healthy like you see on TV, but it will be validation that any challenge that comes in front of me, no matter how massive, intimidating, terrifying, abusive or relentless can be accomplished.
I want prove that I’m as much of a hard core bad ass as I think I am sometimes. I wan’t to look fear in the eye all over again and say “Let’s do this.”
Tags: Ironman | Posted in Ironman, Triathlon | 4 Comments »
