Ironman: The Quest Begins

I left my last post noting that my brother and I were up early on the Monday after the inaugural IM Boulder race. What we were doing ought to be fairly obvious by the title of this post, but let me tell the story all the same.

 

As I mentioned last time, my purpose for volunteering was not entirely altruistic. Indeed, one of the main motivators was to get a priority spot in line for next year’s race. Those spots were claimed by showing up at the main staging area at Boulder High School. The day before it had been the Ironman Village and site of T2, but its purpose on Monday morning was to sign up two groups of people: 2014 athletes who wanted to compete again next year and volunteers. The line for the latter was much longer!

 

We showed up on site at around 7:50 and looking at the line, I figured we would be waiting around for anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. However, there must have been around a dozen and a half volunteers to process the entries.

 

We ended up moving into the registration tent and then it was a simple process of entering a few basic details on an iPad and then providing my credit card. Roughly 3 minutes and $722 later, I was registered to run my first ever Ironman 140.6 race.

 

This morning I received an e-mail confirming my entry and doing some follow-up information. Now it’s officially official!

As we left the high school grounds, I was a little bit giddy at the thought. No doubt somewhere around mile 14 next year I doubt that’s how I will feel, but for now, there is something about actually having taken the step that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

 

Naturally, I’m a little nervous and daunted. Like most folks who decide to take this on, I don’t want to just finish. I mean, I do want to finish, but I also want to be fully trained and be both physically and mentally ready to meet the challenge. I’m not there yet and now I have less than a year to be ready.

 

For now, I have my current season to focus on including a big test in Steamboat on August 17 in the form of an Olympic distance race. Then, three weeks later, my “A” race, the Harvest Moon half iron distance is on September 7. I’ve set a very ambitious sub 6 hour goal for that one.

 

When those events are behind me, it will be time to rest some and then start planning my 2015 strategy with my coach. This race will be paramount and if I do enter any other race, it will only be if it is in support of this one. This past season has taught me clearly that more training and less racing leads to better performance—at least it does for me.

 

My blog’s motto is that every new challenge is a first time and this is the biggest first time of all. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences over the next 12 months or so. I think I’ll have plenty of fodder for several good posts!

 

Thanks for reading!