Full Circle

Well, tomorrow morning Eric and I are heading to Louisville so I can get checked in, get strapped with my Ironman bracelet, and then it’s just me waiting around until Sunday.  This will be my last major post before the race, although I am going to try to write short little posts from my phone with some fun pictures so people know what I’m up to.  But for this post, I thought it would be nice to just sort of summarize why I got into this mess and what the journey has been like. 

Almost a year ago I signed up for Ironman Louisville 2010.  The day before (or maybe it was even earlier that day), I had completed my first Half Ironman and I had a bunch of fun doing it.  It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  So, I had completed a half marathon, full marathon (although I would’ve liked to go a little faster), and a half ironman…what else was there left to do?  Well, an Ironman, of course! 

Ever since I trained for my first half marathon, I’ve found enjoyment and satisfaction from pushing myself to go new distances and train for something in the future.  Not only does it keep me on a consistent workout schedule, but the feeling of crossing a finish line is pretty amazing.  Actually, it’s probably the most amazing feeling I’ve ever experienced, and it’s rather addicting. 

I thought long and hard about doing the Ironman.  The one good thing is that most of the difficult parts of training for Ironman Louisville would occur during the summer when I didn’t have to work.  If I had a job that required me to work all summer, there never would have been an Ironman.  But I had some spare time to kill…why not go out and ride 100 miles on a random weekend? 

The training for this was hard…harder than I anticipated.  And lately my heart just hasn’t been in it, if you haven’t been able to tell.  But I got the bulk of the training in…at least enough to get me to that finish line, if all goes well.  I have pretty much decided that I will never take on this distance again.  Run a marathon – that will probably be something I take on again….but complete another Ironman – doubtful.  I guess I should never say never, because I’m kinda crazy and I could see myself signing up for another one of these somewhere down the road.  But no time soon.  I’ve sacrificed a lot of sleep and free time since March…my weekends have been consumed with either preparing for runs or rides, or actually completing runs or rides.  Cycling has become more of a chore and something I do not look forward to rather than being fun and enjoyable like it used to.  Running has been rather unpleasant this summer due to the heat (I’m definitely more a fall/winter/spring runner!). 

But I know that when I cross that finish line on Sunday night, it will all be worth it.  All the lost free time, limited times I talk to/hang out with friends, stress over when to get workouts in or how a surprise event will impact my ability to stick to my plan, soreness, pain, etc….I will forget about all of that and I will feel pure happiness and overwhelmed-ness.  It is likely that I will cry, or at least get choked up.  It means a lot to me to be able to get across that finish line.  To me, because I’ve been somewhat of a slacker through this training process, it doesn’t feel like I’m accomplishing something that extraordinary…but then I think about it and I know that the vast majority of people could not go out and do something like this.  This is not something you just wake up one morning being able to complete.  I put a lot of sweat, blood (literally, if you count my encounter with the curb in Tri Indy last summer), and tears (there have definitely been tears shed over the course of the past 6 months) into this endeavor and I know I deserve every ounce of satisfaction that is going to come with it as soon as I hit that line. 

For now, I’m going to enjoy the time leading up to the event on Sunday…because it is all part of the journey.  Keep on the lookout for fun pictures from Louisville!