I sat up in bed late Tuesday night, awoken by the memory of a reminder I'd set, who knows when, that had popped up on my phone earlier that evening.
"Register for Expedition Man"
I'd brushed it to the side thinking "I'll remember later and have time to think about it more before committing". Like actually committing to do a full Ironman requires thought. Pshaw.
(it should).
But then, when I woke up and realized waiting and "thinking" about it more was going to cost me at least 25 bucks, I just did it. I got up in a daze, sat at my computer, filled out all my personals, and clicked "Register".
And that was about it. I crawled right back into bed. When I woke up the next morning, I half thought it was a dream. "Did I really register for that??". Uh, yeah. There was definitely a confirmation email in my inbox.
So, August 25th is the day. It's not an "Ironman" trademark event because you should knows those are expensive, sell out early, and are generally held on Sundays. (the one that isn't sold out that isn't on a Sunday is the same day as my sister's high school graduation). (which is a shame because it was the St. George, UT one which would have been awesome). (smilmeister...you're worth it). But the Expedition Man is the same grueling distances. 2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike. 26.2 mile run.
And, at only 275 bucks, it's way cheaper.
And, also, despite registering for it in a bit of a slumber, I did put a lot of thought and research into this before committing. It's been a dream of mine for a while to complete an Ironman.
I remember when I first heard about the Ironman. I was watching TV with my dad in our basement living room in Lincoln, NE. He was flipping channels between the Ironman championship and something else. I thought the Ironman was pretty boring. I mean, it was just a bunch of really fit people running and running and still running every time we went to that station. I didn't understand it. He tried to explain that the athletes had been swimming/biking/running all day. That didn't mean anything to me until I saw a girl collapse. She was just yards away from the finish line, and she just collapsed. That caught my attention!
"She's so close! Why can't she just finish?" I remember exclaiming.
That's when my intrigue began. This girl had nothing left. She was walking like an unbalanced chimpanzee who couldn't stay upright. Step-step-collapse. Step-step-collapse. Another competitor was gaining on her with the same routine. The will to finish was INTENSE. So intense, when they both couldn't stand back up, they started crawling to the finish! In a competition for fourth place!
It was inspiring, in a maniacal sort of way. Though I didn't set my mind to finishing an Ironman that day. The opposite, actually. The Ironman seemed like something only for super humans.
But over the years, as I swam, biked, and ran more, it started to seem a little less daunting and a little more achievable. I finished my first marathon. I swam over two miles in the pool one night. I finished my first sprint triathlon. I finished my first ultra-marathon. I ran all day. All this gave me a little more confidence. The dream of finishing an Ironman has been in my head for a while, and I finally feel like I'm in a place where I can make this dream happen.
And on January 31st, whether it was a fateful sleep-walk or not, I committed to that dream. Despite it's anticlimactic inception, this is going to be an adventure!
(random yoga picture....)
Stay tuned?
Have a great day :-)
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