Let’s be honest, being on IronTEAM wasn’t easy. If it were though, everybody would be doing it. Last week we announced the team’s official races for the 2012 season. Hawaii 70.3, Vineman Full, and Ironman Canada, and since then many of the alumni have had interest in coming back, as well as many new possible participants. There’s this mystique about the team if you’re an outsider – people call us crazy, people don’t know how we do it, people think it’s something they never can do. Well, everyone’s experience is different, but if this thing was bad for you, or so impossible to do, then why would so many people come back, or why does this team have such a high retention rate, or why are people so passionate about it trying to recruit more friends & family to share this experience?
You’ve probably read my Vineman Race Report, and that explained the full experience of the very last day of my IronTEAM training season, but most people don’t know the rest of the story, my thoughts, my journey leading up to it.
WHY?
The actual decision to join the team came about 5 months prior. It was at the Seattle Marathon finish where things felt empty. It was then I felt like I needed a new challenge. I had all the reasons NOT to join the team because I didn’t know how to swim, neither did I own a bike, but from previous TNT experience, I knew the coaches will get you there. I was first set on doing a half Ironman at first, which would have been 6 months of training. The full practiced for 9 months. I figured, well, if I’m going to commit to 6 months, I’d rather just tough it out for 3 more and do 9 and dive down the deep end. Better to do 9 now, than do 6, like it, then do another 9 next year for 15 total? Let’s go big or go home!
Also, I figured, what’s 9 months? Grad school would take more time, coming back season after season as mentor on the marathon team is just as time consuming, and I didn’t mind sacrificing the parties or drinking nights out anyway. Change was needed, and this sounded so interesting & exciting to be learning so many things. Trust me, I was scared because this was ALL new territory. I’ve never done a mini or sprint triathlon to start, neither did I ever spectate one. I’ve seen the Kona Championships on TV, but that was a whole other level beyond my knowledge at the time. I felt I needed to get faster on my run, or even have some base of swimming or cycling, but after thinking about it a lot (I mean, A LOT), just like when I trained for my first marathon, I realized that’s why we train, to get to that goal. Just like school – are you ever prepared on that first day? Do you expect to graduate the following day? No, it takes preparation, great leadership & mentors to get you there. This was definitely one of those where if you put the work in, you will reap the rewards in the end. You just have to decide you want it, trust in the program, then everything will come together eventually.
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