Sorry in advance to any and all of the woman who read this blog with my inference!! For the record, as it relates to evolution; the "big guy in the sky" got it right when he selected woman to bring new life into the world. If it were up to us men, I’m not so sure the human species would have survived/advanced?!!
Ok, where is this guy going with this you may ask? Well, here it goes.
When it comes to competing in an Ironman, and actually finishing one in fewer than 11 hours, it’s the male equivalence of delivering a baby. Sorry ladies but please hear me out and see below. (By the way, this picture is of our son Mark less than an hour into this world).
1) IM (Ironman) even to get into these races now takes over a year of planning.
2) They cost as much if not more than having a baby.
3) After the baby (IM finish is delivered) they make you pay for the next baby even before you can enjoy the one staring you in the face.
4) We lay in bed at night wondering what it’s going to look like.
5) The preparation talks back to us at all hours of the night.
6) We try to come up with a suitable name, but “this effn hurts” or names like that doesn’t go over well enough in the school yard.
7) Everyone around us could care less about it.
8) We carry our finish line photo in our wallet.
9) We have to eat well, avoid booze and our bodies are out of sorts and disfigured.
10) The list of formulas and drinks and supplements surpasses even your best night time feeding
11) We go for check-ups even more than having a difficult pregnancy.
12) Our coach (doctor) is on speed dial and comments on how much we weigh, what color is our pee and how much rest we get.
13) We spend all our free time congregating with other pregnant men and read magazines to buy faster strollers.
Well, it’s just a short list and I’d love to see you add to it.
We are just 6 short days from the big dance called Lake Placid. I so love this course because I feel it suits my biking skills better than most. Training and health are as good as they have ever been. Swim is better, bike watts are about 30 watts higher and I have a solid base for the run with my start and stop of Atacama training. For just this Ironman protocol not including the Boston Marathon, Nubble Light and Atacama preparation I’ve logged 428 hour of training. I’ve completed almost every ride on my trainer where I wanted to see if I could control the workout and keep the intensity as high as possible and time constrained. I’m ready!
The long and crazy odds for Kona are something like this: 100,000 IM athletes, 1500 slots available out of all the races throughout the world. 1.5% chance, or 1 in 66. Less than 1/10 of 1% of the human population will ever even run a marathon. Add IM onto that and you get the picture!
I’ve asked a couple of friends to take over my twitter account since they will be on course. Look to follow Face book or Twitter if you would like updates. Also, here is the Lake Placid real-time tracking.
My bib number is 2091
scribb@twitter.com
http://ironmanlakeplacid.com/
www.ironman.com
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1408468181
