Why I Will Never Do An IRONMAN

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I will never do an IRONMAN.  No, this isn’t a bash on the corporation.  I will never do a 140.6 either.  It’s not going to happen.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  “Never say never.”

But I think this is one case where I can safely say never.

Why?

Well, I have a few reasons.  First off, do you know how long an IRONMAN is?  2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run.  That is a long freaking time.

I have run two marathons.  I loved the sense of accomplishment, but I didn’t love the training.  In fact, I hated the training.  I’m a slow runner with little hope of getting a whole lot faster thanks to my heart rate issues.  So that means that long runs take hours upon hours.  I didn’t really love the racing either.  I’m glad I did it, but I am a retired marathoner at this point.

Now let’s take that and add on the other two elements of the IRONMAN distance.

A 2.4 mile swim.  Okay, that doesn’t sound horrifying.  I could probably survive that.  Not quickly, but it could get done with training.

112 mile bike.  I’m sure over the years, I will do some century rides.  Not super fast (see previously mentioned heart rate issues), but I could do it with training.

But did you see the key there?  Training.  An IRONMAN requires a ridiculous amount of training and as a slower athlete, that’s an even more significant amount of time.

Could I do it?  I mean, probably.  But the big key?  I don’t want to do it.  Not at all.  Sure, I watch those IRONMAN finish videos and think about how awesome they are.  But I don’t have any desire to put my body through that.  And I also know that I don’t have the dedication to put in that many hours of training along with long days at work.  I would burn out so quickly.

The point I’m making is that I know myself.  I know my body, I know my limits, and this is one point where I’m setting a limit.  And that’s okay.  I don’t have to do an IRONMAN and you don’t either.  No triathlete does.  It isn’t the end-all-be-all of triathlons.  If you want to do one, awesome!  I will support you on your way and cheer you on to the finish.  But if you don’t want to do one, you don’t have to.

I’ve talked about this before.  People think that doing a bigger, longer race is just a natural part of your progression in a sport.  But that’s not true at all.  It’s about finding what works best for you.  Think about it – there are plenty of sprinters who don’t run marathons.  Because they’ve found what they are the best at and love the best and they stick to it.

And yes, I’m saying this as a person who is tackling a longer race distance this year.  But it’s something that I want and more importantly, something I feel ready for.  Do I dread some of the training, sure.  But I know what I’m in for and I’m ready.

Don’t feel like you have to jump to the next race level before you’re ready.  Just because someone else is doing a marathon or a half marathon or a 140.6 or a 70.3 doesn’t mean that you have to as well.  And if you want to do it, make sure you know what you’re signing up for.  Yes, it can be worth it, but nothing worth achieving comes without hard work.

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Wednesday Workout Recap

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Well, I’m almost recovered from this stupid cold virus.  I need to get my immune system in gear!

Monday – Rest day.  Got this one done.

Tuesday – Trainer ride.  Couldn’t push it to the watts where I needed to be, but I found a good spot where I was pushing but not coughing.  I consider it a win.

Wednesday –  Easy 4 mile run

Thursday – Swim got cancelled, so I was lazy.

Friday – Crosstraining on the schedule, ended up having to walk all over downtown DC in heels (put in about 3 miles according to Google Maps), so I’m counting it.

Saturday – Quick 20 minute spin on the bike to stay loose

Sunday – Cherry Blossom Ten Miler.

Not bad, but I MUST get back to my workout schedule.  No more slacking.

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Cheaters Never Win

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With the Boston Marathon coming up soon, stories are coming out about people being disqualified from running the race.

For those new to the running scene (or who just don’t care), Boston is a “Big Deal” for a lot of runners.  To get into Boston, you have to run a qualifying time at another marathon based on your age/gender (I would have to run a 3:40 marathon, for example), and even that’s not a guarantee because so many people qualify that your entry can be based on how much you beat the qualifying time by.  (So a person my age who runs a 3:30 marathon has a better chance of getting in than a person who runs a 3:35 marathon.  Neither of which I will ever do.)

You can also run Boston through charity entries, which are awesome, but you have to raise a lot of money.  $5000 or more. Plus most of these charities have an entry process because so many people want to run so it’s not likely that someone rich who just wants to run Boston is going to pay $5000 and get to run.

(Of course, there are people who run on charity bibs but lie and say that they qualified and I think that’s stupid and those people should get over themselves.)

Anyway.  People do a lot of crazy things to get into Boston.  They cut the course in their qualifying race.  They have someone else run under their bib for a qualifier.  They cheat so they can get into the race.

I have zero respect for cheaters.  You can be a super slow marathoner who will never qualify for Boston and I will have way more respect for you than I will ever have for someone who cheats to get in.

Most recently, a story came out where a woman (you can Google her, I’m not giving her the link) posted a sad story about how she’s not running Boston this year.  She calls it a cautionary tale.  In her story, because of various life events, in both 2014 and 2015, she was unable to run after qualifying for Boston.  So last year, instead of letting the bib go to waste, she let a friend run under her bib.

This is NOT ALLOWED.  But as she says, everyone does it (everyone does not do it), and she didn’t charge any money, so it’s not a big deal.  But she got caught and now she is banned from the race.  And she begs their forgiveness and hopes they will someday let her back in.

Two issues.

Number one, it’s against the rules.  What’s the harm, you say?  Well, the big issue with switching bibs is medical.  If you are wearing a particular number and something happens to you, that number is used to identify you.  Let’s say something terrible happens at the race and you are knocked unconscious or worse.  You end up misidentified.  Nothing good comes of this.  When you enter a race, you often put emergency contact info in with your entry.  If that’s used after you get injured and it’s not your emergency contact who gets called, that’s little help.  If you’re using a stranger’s bib, it’s really no help at all.

And even if none of that happens, it’s against the rules.  Rules are rules.

But let’s go to the number two.

This lady left out a big part of her story.  Do you know when she qualified to run Boston in 2016?  At Boston in 2015.

But wait.  She didn’t run it.  She had a friend running with her bib.

So not only did she give away a bib that was non-transferable, she then lied and used that finishing time to get into Boston the following year.  But she doesn’t mention any of this part of the story in her so very sad blog post.

Cheaters never win, and we should have no pity for this woman.  Not only did she cheat, she then attempted to lie about it to get sympathy.

No tears for you here, Gia.

 

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Race Report – 2016 Cherry Blossom Ten Miler

This was my sixth running of the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Miler.  My recent ten mile races haven’t been all that great – all have been slower than I wanted.  Of course, I’ve also opted to run with friends and chat my way through the race, which leads to slower running.  And of course, last year’s race got cut short due to an accident.

My training has not been great leading up to this race.  In March, I took a week off for my brother and sister-in-law’s visit (worth it).  Then I got in a solid week or so of workouts, then I got a killer cold that turned into bronchitis that had me down for almost three weeks.  So… you know.  Not ideal.  I still have a slight lingering cough, but it’s really not a big deal.  I figured the race wouldn’t be terrible.

Then guess what happened?  MOTHER NATURE.

This was the Sunday forecast from the Capital Weather Gang. Awesome.

On Friday, when I went to packet pickup (which is awesome), it was around 80 degrees.  But that was going to change quickly.  A huge cold front came in.  The forecast for Sunday morning was high winds and temps in the 30’s with windchills in the 20’s.  And 45-50mph gusts of wind.  Not ideal.

The poor race organizers absolutely did their best though.  All unnecessary tents came down (they kept bag check and medical, I believe).  All the mile markers came down.  The Start/Finish banner came down.  And they had to rework the water stops so no one blew away and so there wasn’t a sea of cups in the water.  Unfortunately, they caught some heat about this on social media, which was a bit ridiculous.  Yes, mile markers are nice, but they don’t make a race. And at many of the mile marker spots, there were volunteers with bullhorns yelling out the mile.  Which means they were probably out there yelling for about an hour or more.  Awesome volunteer work.

Every single one of the volunteers out there yesterday were amazing.  I’m so thankful for every person who showed up.  Volunteers are incredible.

So my race.  Initially, I wanted to race well.  Then when I got sick, I just wanted to finish.  This race has a strict 14 minute per mile pace, so I just wanted to keep that.  I’m always in the last corral with the party people, so I have to be careful about that pace.

It was cold standing around before the race, but once I got started, it felt pretty good.  Mile one, I was under a 13 minute per mile pace.  That’s my usual goal as of late when I’m racing – stay under 13 minutes.  So I thought I would see what I could do.  I managed to hold a sub-13 through about mile 3, but mile 4-5 got a bit tough.  I hit the mile 5 mat right at 1:05 on my watch, putting me at exactly a 13 minute mile pace. I opted to push a bit harder to see if I could hold the sub-13 and finish under 2:10.

The winds were no joke during this race.  There were a few moments early on where the wind definitely pushed me to the side, and I’m no waif.  But there were also moments where we had some significant tailwinds which I think helped.

Speaking of tailwinds, I used Tailwind as my only fuel this race and I think it went well.  No need to slow to eat something.  Not that I need much to eat during a 10 miler, but since I’m out there 2 hours, I need something.

I managed to pull into the finish in 2:08:46.  Kept that sub-13 and even picked up the pace in the second half.  Pretty much a perfect race all in all.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to hurt tomorrow – going from being really cold right into running never goes well for me.  At least I had the walk up to the start.  That should help some.

I came home and immediately took a hot bath to get warm again.  It’s been a while since I raced in weather that cold!

Thanks again to every single volunteer and spectator out there.  I know it was a miserably cold day, and everyone who showed up is awesome.

 

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