Tonight, on his blog, he posted this comment...
If blogging makes you smart, how to explain Trigeekdreams and the desire to compete in the Wildflower Half-Ironman?
Why did I complete an Ironman? Part of me wanted to see if I could. I wanted to see if it was physically possible for me to do the long course. I wanted to do something that was above average... something that couldn't quite be related to. That's a FULL Ironman. Something that any mere mortal can do, but takes effort and perseverance above anything else.
The shock on my system from that Ironman rewired my brain. I don't know how, but I would suffer bouts of clinical depression that would render me incapable of concentrating or for that matter functioning. I was on anti-depressants that really helped, but the shock to my system from the amount of energy that you consume triggered something in my brain and I didn't need the anti-depressants.
Maybe it was a physiological change, maybe it was just a self-esteem thing... knowing that you've done 'the undoable'.
But is it a matter of intelligence or the lack thereof?
I don't know that it is.
I love triathlon because I like throwing all of the events together. I don't like running for the sake of running. And while I love cycling and it will always be my first choice among sports, just going and doing a 100 or 200 mile is interesting, but it doesn't completely hold my interest. But pushing your body and seeing what you can do amongst three sports in a day? It's a bit like going to the buffet and loading up on favorites.
I think Triathlon aided me in day to day life not only because it showed what I was capable of, but it trained me in delayed gratification and how to work towards a goal. You CAN'T train for 1 day and go and complete an Ironman. brick by daily brick, one piece of training gets laid on top of another.
I remember when I first told my parents I was going to do an Ironman, my Dad looked at me and said "You're going to drown!"
His comment wasn't the most heartening thing anyone's ever told to me.
But hearing that comment allowed me to store it away and drive me on the day to day tasks even more.
Anyway, I wanted to defend Tri-Geek Kahuna. Doing a half-ironman is an admirable thing and Hugh should give the Kahuna some credit for not coming out and saying he was going to do a full or something even more radical like a double-Ironman right out of the gate. In Hugh's book In But Not Of he makes the point that we should be physically active but that we shouldn't go to far into major things because our time was better spent in other places. I don't know that I completely agree with him on this point, but one could argue that Tri-Geek IS doing this Triathlon thing in moderation BY doing a half-ironman.
I leave with these quotes from a triathlon trainer named Gordo (http://www.byrn.org/gtips/gtips.htm) about Ironman races...
Ironman is all about "will". The will to sign up for the race. The will to do the training. The will to continue when your body asks, and your mind begs you to slow down. They say that getting to the line is half the battle, but on a bad day, the only way you are going to finish is for insanity to triumph over reason. There aren't many opportunities in life where you can push mentally and physically right to the edge. Success is never guaranteed and nasty pitfalls await the reckless. I love it.
Everyone who finishes an Ironman has a special knowledge. Knowledge of their core self. Some folks don't like what they find out. Most love it. If you approach the event with respect, and race for the right reasons, I don't think it is possible to have a "bad" race. Even on the worst day, there's no place I would rather be.
You have to be doing Ironman for yourself. Racing for your husband, your mother or your mates is helpful, but you have to want to finish - badly. The reason is that there will be many moments in training and during race day when you will want to quit. By not quitting you will learn a lot about yourself. You will become stronger, you will change. There aren't many things in life that give us the opportunity to test our inner strength. IM is one of those things.
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