The playoffs for most Triathletes is to race a full Ironman Event. I've signed up for 5 Half Ironmans with 3 finishes, 1 DNF due to flat tires and one DNS for the birth of my son. While the 70.3 distance is still a big challenge for me, my eye has always been on the full 140.6. Can I do it? Will I ever race one? Can my family and friends survive me training for one? All questions swirling.
By the way, the Superbowl would be the World Championship in Kona... a lofty target I'm sure I will only get to by winning a lottery spot.
Most of the time, I blow it off and don't worry about the stress of "should I" since most of the events sell out in 24 hours and I don't have the wherewithal to get plan before hand, discuss with my wife and sign up online they day registration opens. Can't sign up, no problem. I also
read an article on Active.com asking some of the "should I" questions as well that made me think as well...
Problem was, I was poking around the IM website and saw that IM Louisville is still open. For how long, who knows. I'm not even sure it sold out last year. It's a tough course in the midst of some nasty heat on August 29th. I would suspect that's why it may not fill up. There's also the Utah race, but I read reports from the pros that the course was a b*tch and you're asking for trouble racing that event.
So, I just mentioned it to the wife with 80% joking and 20% serious. She was like "are you signed up for any Ironman races in 2012"? Um, no. Sure, go ahead... I was like, "who are you and where did my wife go"? Not in a mean way, but such a huge undertaking and she was more than happy to encourage me to sign up within 2 minutes of me bringing it up, until she asked, "wait, is that a half or full?". HA, busted.
But even after I told her it was a full, she wasn't totally turned off to the idea. But, she also knows the reality of life and the fact I am OC and way too practical to just sign up on a whim.
Obstacles
- Training time. It was tough with a 3 year old, 1 year old and a wife with medical issues to find the time and not feel guilty for what time I did train for 2 HIM's last year. I don't want to take away time from my wife and kids to train. I also would like to keep my job, so i can't just quit to train. I'm not a pro, sadly.
- Money. It's $600 just to sign up, not counting to and from Kentucky, lodging, food while I'm there... etc. It's not cheap.
- What do you do with the family? Take the kids and make the wife watch them for the entire pre and during race period? That's not fair. Leave the kids and just take the wife? That's more realistic, but the kids that suffer missing you while you train don't get to participate in the culmination of your training.
- The unexpected. Wee Man has had some resurfacing of some of his health issues. Nothing extreme, but we are looking into some possibilities for conditions he has that could have long term and costly ramifications. Ironman's can wait, his health cannot. Then, you add the wife and her foot into the picture. Who knows if that ankle will hold up with work and life. Lots of medical concerns running around our house.
Overall I'm confident I can complete a full IM race, but I struggle with the logistics, mainly the funding and especially if we find out our son needs a lot more medical intervention than thought.
I'm contemplating putting IM Louisville on MVT as a future event and hoping funding gets to a certain point before registration closes.
Something like $600 for registration, $300 for gas, $300 for 3 nights lodging and $200 for food, totalling $1400 at minimum. Fellow IM finishers, does that sound reasonable?
The
MVT project has been going well. The
Heartland 39.3 series is picking up partners,
Ruckus came up quickly and I'm adding more events. I'd like to get a race kit made and work in all partners while writing content for them and helping get the word out about them.
It's a lofty goal. Any thoughts? Sadly, I believe in myself enough that I can complete and compete in a full 140.6. The reality is that we have had some tough financial times with medical situations. I'm not complaining, to an extent. We have jobs, we have health insurance and we live a nice life. What sucks is when you want to do a couple things outside of "normal" and you don't have the funds. Tough times call for creative measures!
What do you guys think out there? I've shared my Examiner writing. A lot of you have probably found me from EverymanTri.com. And some have probably just stumbled on to my site surfing the web from work when you should be working. =)
Nothing worse then putting it out there and having no interest. But, you can always say, "nothing ventured, nothing gained
