So here it goes. My quest for Ironman Glory. Not that long ago I would never have thought that I would be able to even contemplate being a triathlete, never mind an Ironman. I was not an athlete in school (mediochre at soccer doesn't count) - I was the A student, not the artist or the jock, and I never really could keep a commitment to "jogging" or "working out" as an adult for more than a couple of months. Then I found triathlon - or it found me. I was hooked. I messed around with it for about 4 years, doing one a year. The triathlon season is short in Calgary, and my training commitment hadn't really expanded much. Then I aged up into the 40-44 category the year after I moved to GA, and I signed up for a late-season race which turned out to be a reverse triathlon no less. I won my age group - WHAT!! Ya, so I decided that maybe I should start training again - it was fun to win! In my typical planner fashion, I got out my tri training books, and started to figure out what the plan should be and decided if I was going to get serious I needed to have my VO2 max measured to find out my real HR zones. That's how I found Matt and Sport Factory. Met with Matt, got my tests done, and he convinced me in his quiet way that a coach might be a good idea. In walks Chris. Zimmer. Z. My new coach. That was two years ago this week actually. So that first year I did some sprints, and decided it was high time I did an Olympic and tackle that longer swim. AGH. That was in May 2009. Then, lord knows what possessed me, but I decided that I was going to attempt a half ironman as well. And I did it - the inaugural Augusta 70.3 in 2009. And then I did two more - Florida 70.3 in May 2010 and then Augusta 70.3 again in 2010. And lots of sprints mixed in between.
And then one Tuesday morning about 4 months ago I walked into work not knowing how my world was about to change. I opened my email, saw a note from my buddy Richard (a fellow expat, in Australia) asking if we were signing up or not. What?? We'd talked about doing Ironman Canada together in 2011. I'd figured all along I would have to do the charity slot (another $550 on top of the huge entry fee) since you simply can't get into IMC without being there in person the day after the race, so I still had plenty of time to decide and commit. Turns out they opened online registration this year. Who knew!! And here it was Tuesday morning, I thought oh no! I'm going to be too late. I quickly got onto the website, started typing in my info, amazed that it was taking it, entered the credit card, pressed the button and held my breath - OMG it accepted my money!! OMG I WAS IN. I sat in shock for about 2 minutes, wondering what I had just done. Then I texted Z. "Ok. Ready? I just registered for IMC. !!!!!!!" 10 minutes later he calls and says, guess what? I'm registered too! So, ROCK ON, not only was I going to do IMC, I was going to do it with my buddy Richard, and my coach! How great is that. Gets better too, as another athlete/coach (Jen) from SportFactory has also decided to do it (despite just giving birth on Boxing Day!), and to top it all off, her husband, who will be with us, is the Bike Mechanic at SF!!!
So, ya, who'da'thunk I'd ever be pursuing an Ironman...but here I am! A testament to the truth of being able to do whatever you set your mind to. I really want to capture the challenges and the growth that I know I'm going to experience over the next 8 months, and much as I might want to, I won't write it in a journal. But I might do it if it is on a blog. Maybe nobody will see this, maybe some will, but either way, I'll have a record of what I learned in this amazing challenge. I've got a lot to set my mind to over the next 34 weeks. Bring it on! I'm ready. Totally excited and absolutely terrified.
