complete an ironman

i am so far from this path that i am tempted to drop this to the bottom of my list. suffice it to say, i will not be competing in the imc any time soon. i am looking at beginning to train again after i return to canada at the end of february.

well, unfortunately, i didn’t have the steam to do everything i’d planned to. a few unexpected curveballs came flying my way and the ironman dream had to be delayed a year. but things are looking great for imc 2007.

i’ve got a really good training partner lined up for when i return to canada in january and a master plan. and, well, since hardly anyone i know will be in calgary when i get back and none of the cool places i remember will be hopping, i’ll have very little to do other than to work out like crazy!

step one: swim class
step two: routine
step three: reconnect with coach
step four: make it happen

i’m totally stoked!

i’ve got a team of irontraining buddies together and we’re going to rip it up IMC 2007!

our training blog

so, i ran a half-marathon this morning. my first! and finished in 2:08:00. oddly, i really enjoyed every bit of the experience. hooray!

not long ago, this ironman thing seemed like a pipe dream. funny how the world works. i’ve gotten myself on a great team the cops for cancer crew. i am in the process of retaining a coach, troy jacobson, and i am six days away from running my first half marathon.

if just six months ago, someone told me that i would be doing any of this, i would have told them they were NUTS.

who’s nuts now?

i LOVE this life!

one more step
seven more kilometers

one more breath
a curve

pavement pounding
flying

there is a freedom to be found in the strictest of routines…

so, on the advice of my teammate dawn, who has already completed an ironman, now is the time for building a solid base in all three events. as i am living in africa and there are certain logistical difficulties to be overcome, i figure running is the best place to start because it just requires me, my shoes, and some motivation.

for the last two weeks, i’ve been running nearly everyday, but today i began a base-training program that will have me at the half-marathon distance in 18 weeks.

this morning i ran 7km without stopping or altering my pace and i finished with a sprint the last 100m, breathing fine and smiling.

this is such an amazing process.

i look forward to every footstep.

the slogan for the ironman competition is the title of this entry. i truly believe that to be so. growing up i was one of those stand-on-the-sideline asthma-allergy kids. from a combination of that and a general disinclination toward anything that involved getting my ass off the couch, i got it in my head that i waas simply not athletic. over the past few years i have been learning that that is patently not true. and have been doing everything i can to make up for lost time.

yay! bodies.

the ironman is an athletic competition that requires participants to swim 3.86km, cycle 180.2km, and then run 42.2km. i can’t wait to do it.

i can’t remember when it was that i decided to aim toward the ironman as a goal, but i do remember when i first wrote it in my goal book (december of 2002) and i remember quite clearly an inspirational conversation with a friend (january 2005) when i decided to voice my goal publicly.

thanks dawn.