It may be cliche, but the adage proves true for this budding triathlete who swore she'd never do an Ironman. Just one month ago, I sat at dinner with Borko, munching on tacos and sipping margaritas. After he told me he signed up for IM Switzerland, he suggested that I register. I looked at him, my expression and tone indicated that I thought he was crazy, as I said, "Tell you what, if you're still talking to me in a year, I will go and be the greatest cheerleader you've ever seen, but I am never doing an Ironman."
I didn't give doing the race a second thought.... Until last week.
Chris and I had exchanged multiple emails regarding our personal futures on the tri team that we have been training with over the last year. When she emailed me and told me her story about how she would be doing an IM, I felt inspired. Her passion for life and the attitude with which she approaches training I find to be both motivational and practical. As she talked of finding purpose in supporting a charity, I felt my heart more compelled to want to train with and support my friend in her endeavor. Then, I realized that I could be less selfish in my athletic pursuits and raise money for a charity too.
The way I see it, there are two types of people in the world, those who study and make calculated decisions, reading anything that they can get their hands on and making informed decisions; then there are those who shoot from the hip, learn as they go and hope for the best. I fall into the second category. Especially when alcohol is involved. After two glasses of wine on a Monday evening, I found myself saying to Chris, "If you do it, I'll do it."
I didn't sleep that night. Every time I rolled over there was a burning excitement about what I had almost committed myself to doing. I was not totally on board with it as I had yet to register for a race. In the meantime, I emailed my Father, also known as my conscience, and asked him what he thought. His response: "I know you can do it, but I am not sure that it is the best use of your time. No one gets healthier by working out more than one hour per day." He said enough: "I know you can do it." That was all I needed to hear, if the one person who truly "gets me" knows I can do it, I'm going to do it. The latter part of his comment made me laugh - no one does an Ironman to get healthier. If anything, it proves that we are all insane.
When Chris emailed Borko and me to tell us that she signed up, a long drawn out sigh came out of my mouth in the sound of an obscenity that begins with the letter "F". I'm not only doing an Ironman now, but I am flying to another continent to do it. This is going to be time consuming and expensive, which as triathletes, we all know that those two words are true of this lifestyle we get wrapped up in, but it was about to reach a whole new level.
Friday morning, I joined Borko for a bike ride in the park. As we came up a hill at the lower loop of Central Park I told him about how I was nervous that Chris may not do the Nation's Triathlon that we are sigend up for on September 13. That's when I said, "I am going to tell her that if she'll do Nation's, I will sign up for Switzerland." Lucky for me, she sealed the deal.
I spent this last weekend celebrating a life of debauchery at the Jimmy Buffett concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the 3 days of boozing, I finished one 3.5 mile run. As I deplaned this morning feeling like a broken destoyed shell of a human being, I looked at my friend and said, "I'm signing up for an Ironman today."
When I went to register, the nervous energy swelling inside me was making my stomach tie into knots and I was jittery. I completed the reservation, entered my credit card number and.... "DECLINED!" Was this some sort of sign? Whatever, I'm not having this, I am not about to tell my friends that I cannot do a race with them because my credit card was declined. The good people at Citi were looking out for me. Evidently, people who have multiple transactions at bars in Wisconsin in a weekend do not sign up for Ironman races in Switzerland the next day. Citi released the hold on the transaction and I successfully registered.
My next big challenge is picking the charity(ies) that I will race to support. When I told my boss of my new endeavor, he suggested that I race for the Human Fund. If any of you have any good, that is legitimate, ideas about a charity send it my way!
