I’ve got the entire race in my head ready to be ‘downloaded’ to paper, but I’m thinking Part 1 of this story should probably be the run-up to the race, not the race itself.
I guess it was 1999 when doing an Ironman became a goal. My training buddy, Paul, and I had already completed several sprint triathlons, and were about to do our third International Distance tri.
On the way up to the race in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Paul was mentioning that a buddy of his might be at the race. His buddy, or rather a freind of a friend, had done an Ironman the year before. I intended to ask the guy some questions – though I don’t remember which questions.
We arrived at the race, got our acts together, racked the bikes and were just hanging out when we came upon his, now nameless, buddy. The first thing I noticed was that he didn’t look like an uber-athlete, and he had the mdot tattoo on his ankle.
I don’t remember what else we talked about, but after he left we knew we were doing an Ironman. I’m not even sure we spoke about it much – but the fact that he didn’t look in much better shape than me sealed the deal. I also wanted the reward of that tattoo, and the allure of the Ironman T-shirt was crazily electric.
The racing season was about over so the plan became train for Internationals next year, and conclude the year with a half-ironman and then in 2001 – the real deal.
The desire and planning wouldn’t come till later though, it was time to an International Distance Tri. We’d prepared quite well for this and were pretty excited about it. In every race prior I finished 3 minutes behind Paul, both sprints and internationals. Today was the day.
That thought came to an end 50 yards into the water. I’m not sure if I started too fast, or was too nervous or what – but 50 yards in I was pretty read to quit. Exhausted wasn’t the word, I didn’t think I could even finish the water portion. For some reason I was so tired after 50 yards I even grabbed a kayak for a quick breather.
And it reminded me of Paul’s first tri. His first was the Tri-Shark in Bloomington, IL. I’d cheated a done a race by myself just to see what is what like. I already knew what the bike to run transition was like. Paul hadn’t experienced this yet. He later recalled to me, “Getting off the bike and starting to run was so painful and awkward I could barely walk. I said to myself ‘I’m a grown adult. I don’t have to do this. I could just quit’”. But he didn’t.
That made me laugh so much sitting there hanging on to the kayak -that I got back in the water and took off without any problems. But for 10 seconds, my Ironman goal was thwarted by a 50 yard swim – on a perfect day.
Who would know that between then and my first Ironman, I’d quit my job, move from Illinois to Arizona, get a new job, get engaged, and plan the wedding and the arrival of our first child just a month after the 2001 California Ironman?
