Gonna Do It.

Well, folks, I could easily count all the times I’ve said, “I’ll never do _____________,” when thinking about athletic pursuits. I’ll never run a race. I’ll never do a marathon. I’ll never do a triathlon. Well, I keep doing things. Part of it, surely, is my own alcoholic obsession. And part of it is discovering the love I have for accomplishing difficult things I didn’t think I could do.

And so, right now, my big “I will never” is a full Ironman race. And I might be physically incapable of that with how much I sweat, and how my knee responds to long distances on a bike. It might be beyond me. And that’s ok. If there are things I can’t do, there are things I can’t do. Some things really are too hard.

But I have decided to compete in a half-Ironman. Probably Austin, TX, in October of 2017. I’ll find a way to train for that. To build myself up and get myself fit. The swim doesn’t bug me. I can swim 1.2 miles. Probably in just under an hour. Then, the big challenge. 56 miles on a bike. That’s going to be the real monster. After that, a half marathon – 13.1 miles.

To prepare for it, between now and then, I’ll be running two full 26.2 mile marathons, at least two other half marathons, and another Olympic triathlon, a 5150 (probably the Philadelphia Tri-Rock in June).

I am going to do a race that was so far beyond what I ever thought I could do that I considered people who did them to be exhibiting some kind of pathology. Well, now I’m one of those people. And yeah, maybe we exhibit some kind of pathology. But I can do this. I know I can do this. So I’m going to go do this.