I was over checking out the Trifuel site, and was reading this dude’s race report. It was actually pretty entertaining (the guy’s a pretty good writer, I thought, plus he talks to his bike, so he can’t be all bad), and then I got to the last bit, about how finishing an Ironman was going to change his life, in ways he didn’t know or understand yet. I completely respect that feeling, but for me, I don’t really feel any different. I feel like I accomplished something, but I’m still the same Spot that went up to Madison last week. So I was just curious…who out there feels that they changed somehow, or their lives changed because they finished an IM, and who out there feels that it’s just another race, only longer? I had a good time and all, and I’m anxious to do LP next year, but life changing? Not really, for me anyway.
I also just did my first IM at MOO. On Tuesday, someone gave me a card with the Emerson quote, “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.” That pretty much sums up my IM experience. Not life changing, but a great experience.
No, it was life-changing for me, I feel it gradually. Everyone’s different, and I bet every IM is different too. A guy who talks to his bike? I talk to my bike. Have to check out his article…j
It sounds dumb…I know I am not FOP…I know I am not allot of things…but I know when am heading down the hill to the high school at IMLP I am the happiest bastard on earth. Some people smoke crack for that feeling…I dont take the easy way ever.
I think to say you’ve done an IM means more to people who have never done one than to someone who has.
Is anyone really that different after they’ve done an IM? For me, the answer is no. I’ll always be pretty much the same person b/c my values (not my racing) define who I am.
Coming across the finish line at IMMOO this year, my parents and friends said that I had a smile on my face like they had never seen before. It’s definitely something special.
I am with you. It was something I worked hard to do and I am proud of myself for the effort I put into it. But, it was not a defining moment in my life. But for others it may inspire them to do great things.
So I was just curious…who out there feels that they changed somehow, or their lives changed because they finished an IM, and
My heart is somewhat screwed up now, conveniently after doing IM. I recently had to drop out of a race for other than equipment reasons because of this. So finishing appears to have changed my life.
Doing an Ironman made me feel stupid. During that torturous marathon all I could think was, “what the fu*king hell am I doing!!!???” There was zero sense of accomplishment and a tremendous amount of pain. The cost/reward ratio is very skewed. All Ironman proved to me is that my pain threshold is MUCH higher than I expected, but I could have discovered that by stabbing myself with a spoon in the gut until I broke through.
I feel better when one of my programs works right or I derive some cool new relation I hadn’t considered before.
I don’t think that the Ironman race itself has changed my life. But I do think that being out there everyday training for the event certainly taught be a lot about my self. And each year I do this stuff, I think I learn more things about myself that I didn’t know the year before. It’s a cleansing of sorts for me. I get in better shape physically, but that’s minor. I think the big things for me are the mental benfits that I get from this self awareness? I don’t know if that makes any sense, but that’s so how it works for me.
I would say that without a doubt, the race changed me forever. Not Ironman, but my first marathon back in Philadelphia in 2003. Before I took on that challenge, I was your average gym rat with no athletic aspirations whatsoever beyond preparing myself to bench press a VW should one fall from the sky & land on my chest. I was fat (relatively speaking), slow, disproportionate and oblivious to the concept of pushing one’s physical limits. After witnessing my wife complete her first marathon while suffering from post-flu misery, I knew that I had never really challenged myself and thus never felt a true sense of physical struggle, perserverence or accomplishment. The feeling I had finishing that marathon and achieving my time goal to boot was something I’ve never come close to duplicating. Ironman was pretty amazing; I still get goosebumps when I think about the final sprint up the hill, into the chute & hearing those words sear into memory - “Clinton Adams, YOU ARE and Ironman!”. But the metamorphosis really occurred way back in 2003, where I left my old self at the starting line at the foot of the Philadelphia Art Museum, and over the next 26 miles discovered the person I was meant to be. My life has two very distinct periods, pre-marathon and post-marathon. Every race after the first - ultramarathon, ironman etc. is just a small incremental step in comparison.
For me - just a sporting event. A long, slow paced sporting event. Fun as hell - don’t get me wrong - but I feel more sense of accomplishment (and more physical pain) racing an 8hr or 24hr MTB race solo.
BUT…I get the greatest satisfaction watching friends complete their first IM, and sticking around for the final 2 hrs. I love this part of the race - it’s emotional - and will continue to drive to events to volunteer and cheer in the 15-17 hour people.
Why does it not mean as much to me? Not sure. I think it was built up so much that I had a feeling of “this is what all the hype was about?” when I finished my first one. It didn’t kill me, and it lacked many of the physical challenges that I’ve felt in other events. In short, it just felt like a long, slow, fun day with a couple thousand happy people.
I do think it’s a life-changing experience to those who perhaps did not experience athletics much growing up…or those that have to sacrifice a lot to get in the training. I don’t have any sacrifices to make for it - no kids, wife that races - and don’t really train specifically for it. I just do what I do - ride/race my MTB a lot, do a weekly time trial series and go for fun long rides with friends - then race and see what happens. It just happens to be good training for an IM, I suppose. I don’t know, but I absolutely believe that merely finishing an IM is something that anyone -and I mean ANYONE - can do if they train smart. Not a lot, just smart.
Now finishing it fast? That requires some talent, and maybe if I go sub-10 someday I’ll have that supreme sense of accomplishment. But for now, the only time I get that feeling is at the end of an 8hr MTB race -knowing that I left everything I had out there, and that the course took something out of me, and that I raced until I physically couldn’t pedal the bike anymore. It’s a good feeling, and something that a long road ride will never give me.
I think to say you’ve done an IM means more to people who have never done one than to someone who has.
Couldn’t have said it better.
No offense to those who still haven’t completed one sucessfuly, but I was a little underwhelmed when I finished. I had dreamed about this most of my life about what an amazing accomplishment it would be and, frankly, it wasn’t THAT big of a deal. I didn’t have to push through miles of pain like I had expected. Maybe I should have trained less ; )
I will say that the non-Irons that I know (which is about 99% of the people in my life) are more impressed with me than I am.
You hit the nail on the head, especially for a first timer. I am definitely in the post IM funk phase right now and can’t wait to do another one. At least for me the journey and the self imposed training pressure was more difficult then the acutal IM.
Haven’t we established that Ironman is an event, not a race?
That is how I felt after my races. Taking part in an event…
The survival training in the military, the really scary accidents, or even the rather mundane ride on a MIG-29 figher jet. Those events impacted my life and living much more than any endurance race.
Endurance training/racing is Life… and logically it won’t be able to change itself.
for me it’s just a long race. A race i’m not very good at (yet). I probably have a wrong attitude about it too. I don’t care about the “finishing is the most important thing” anymore. I already did that. Now i want to **race **an IM. But first I have to get my nutrition right cause DNF still sucks.
For the time being just an event. But that might change if I invested enough time and effort to “race it”. That is…run it. I might be able to tell next year
Ironman gives me an inner confidence that I draw on when life gets rough
This sums it up for me. When that last piece of pizza is staring at me from the plate and I am full…the pizza talks to me and says “Come on lee…you are a frickin Ironman…suck it up and eat me.”
