5 years ago to the week, I was laying on my friend Fisch Face’s couch when she said “the Boulder Peak was today, Paula did it.” And I said “two hours of racing…why would anyone do something that dumb?!” Then we watched the Ironman on TV and decided to do one. A year later, we both completed Ironman Arizona. My only plan for nutrition was “drink gatorade if I get thirsty…and put a diet coke in my special needs bags for the run.” No one has ever accused me of being too smart. After 10 and a half hours of misery in Tempe, I retired from Ironman racing. Thats a lie, I enjoyed the swim and T1, so it was really only 9.20 of misery. But anyway.
2 years later I discovered one of the greatest joys that life has to offer, riding a bike down a mountain. In the process, I also learned to appreciate the ride up. To justify my new found addiction to riding up and down big hills all day, I decided to sign up for another Ironman. I enjoyed the first 7 hours of the race until I had a cookie at mile 3 of the run. I have celiac, but didnt know it at the time (despite popular belief, celiac is not a std, it is a disease of the small intestine). After 3 hours of puking and stumbling, I again retired from Ironman racing.
Then I started working with a coach who told me I was too young to do Ironman, he said my next one would be in 2012. Oh my. I understand the reasoning of getting fast before you go long. However, having swam and ran track from preschool until my junior year of college when my ticker stopped working (thats another blog for another time) i had tapped out all of my “fast.” To be perfectly honest, I did the fastest running and swimming of my life at the age of 14…before i discovered boys, I suppose.
Then the dark and scary year of 2008 happened (remember when I mentioned my ticker and celiac?) and I realized how short this life really is. Too short to sweep your dreams under a rug and pretend they dont exist. So, I decided to give the Ironman another go. I am racing lake placid next week, and I couldnt be more excited. To think about where I was a year ago today, and the fact I am still here, still fighting, the actual race is just icing on this crazy looking cake.