2014 marks my 20th season of doing triathlons. I will never forget my first triathlon in Harriman State Park in New York and I will always remember this Ironman in Mont Tremblant Canada. I will continue to do triathlons, but I only need to do one Ironman. With all that I’ve been through, pregnancies, surgeries, and injuries, I wanted to know if I had what it took to train for and complete this distance. I wanted to know what it felt like to cross the finish line of an Ironman Triathlon.
I now know that it’s hard. I know that’s is very challenging. I know that it takes countless hours of training, extra sleep, extreme nutritional discipline, and lots of sacrifice.
I know that every year many thousands of athletes train for and complete Iron-distance triathlons. Every year or multiple times in a year, age group athletes complete Ironman triathlons. My hats go off to those athletes. These are normal athletes with families, businesses, careers, and many responsibilities more than just to themselves. It takes a lot of personal sacrifices. It also takes a lot of sacrifice on the part of any family.
I don’t mean to get too preachy, but life is too short to spend it swimming, biking, running all the time. And if you’re not swimming, biking or running, then you’re thinking about when you’re going to do it next or what you can eat or when you’re going to sleep to make sure you perform well during your next workout.
Somewhere in there for these kinds of races, your family can get lost and I’m not willing to make that sacrifice. This may not be true for all families or athletes, but it was something that I noticed in my training for this race.
Trust me. I love to swim. I love to bike. I love to run. And I really love to do them all in one day. But, I don’t need them to take a disproportionate role in my life either.
I’m a “one and done Ironman” and proud of it! Unless I change my mind…