The quest for a story is the quest for life - Jill Johnston

We'll call this one "day 1" of my Ironblog...

So what is the Ironman? It is a long distance triathlon with the following distances:
3.8 km swim in a lake
180 km bike ride on the road
42.2 km run on the road

To put it bluntly, it's one long day starting at 7am and finishing at 7pm for some, midnight for others, and for the best of them... 3:30pm...

So there ya have it? The experience is tiring, sometimes painful, frustrating, joyful and exuberant all at once. And, really, the day of the race itself is a statement for all the work and time that gets put in to preparing for it... There are sacrifices that get made, like early Friday night bedtimes to catch a long bike ride in the morning, for one... Not one of my strongest habits, by the way!

But you always weigh the sacrifice with the rewards you feel, and training for the Ironman in 2002 was one point in my life where I really felt I came alive, despite being too tired to finish a sandwich some nights... And I'll share one moment from that wonderful day in August:

I came to the final 10km of the run, after about 11 hours of exercise in the heat in Penticton... I had walked a significant portion of the marathon. Significant for me, that is, considering that my full intent was to save my strength and run that marathon as best as I could. But I simply had no gas left at all. My stomach was feeling queasy, I couldn't get any energy from energy gels, fruit, cookies, or even straight chocolate - I'm not sure but there must have been a food that would have worked (more on this in later posts)... Needless to say, this was not the finishing touch to a year of training that I wanted.

I came to the 33km mark (less than 10k to the finish), and made that final decision for the race - I would run the rest of the way no matter what. Now, at this point in exhaustion, one's brain takes instructions from any source it can. I firmly believe that had someone suggested running naked would help, I would have bought it. It is like being thirsty in the desert... You'll drink sand if you think it is water and convince yourself it will work.
So, this final thought, this final cohesive suggestion, and I started running... All of a sudden I was thinking "why didn't I run before?" because I really started to feel good again. I wasn't tired, injured, or anything.
Passing the 8 km-to-go mark (5 miles), I saw a group of friends and that memory will stay with me forever. I could not acknowledge them as I was just afraid I would fall apart like a marshmellow and start crying. But I definitely couldn't ignore them. At that point I realized how truly lucky I was to be there, to have people in my life that I cared deeply about, to have a dream, work towards it, and to be in the process of realizing it. You know that moment where you actually think "I have arrived where I always wanted to be..." It's a moment. It doesn't last long (because once you have that you need a new place to go!), but it is everlasting in how it makes you feel.
At that moment it was no longer about the Ironman. It was about me and the world I had created for myself, with a family I love, friends I cherish, and my ability to dream and make dreams come true.

I love the sport of triathlon. I consider it a sport. It is not a hobby... Hobbies can be casual and uninvolved at times. This is a passion... It's a competition... But not a competition limited to me vs. him or her, although that exists. It's not only a competition against the clock, although that element, too, exists. It's a competition against the elements, against injuries, against the course, against the limits of your beliefs about yourself. You have to learn every day... You have to have a bad bike ride snack in order to figure out a good one... And you cannot take the Ironman lightly, or it will beat you senseless...

You have to trust in the folks who have completed this journey before you, but you have to realize that you are as unique and individual in your needs as the 2000 other athletes who are competing...

So, it's Day 1, it's february 3rd, and I am well into the base prep. time for my race.

Soon to come, the Ironcops for Cancer story... I'll save that one for another day, but in the meantime, check out the website of www.ironcopsbc.com and you'll find me on the BC Team!

Happy Training!