It was raining and cold today…so I was stuck on my trainer for an EXTENDED period of time…and I was thinking about this question.
What drives all of you to do the IM distance? Especially those IM veterans that do it year after year? Is it for the chance to get to Kona? Podium?!!??! To improve previous timing??
I’m training for my first IM race (IMCdA) and it really takes up ALOT of time. Training for a shorter distance tri will probably take up much less time unless one is trying to WIN it…thats another story. If its just for health and fitness reasons, most of us certainly don’t need to be doing 100 mile rides and 16 mile long runs to be healthy…
I’m wondering what I will be feeling after my first IM. Will I want to do it again??
I was wondering the same thing this morning during my 2.5 hr run in the cold and snow. Last week it was 80 deg. today 35 deg. I had to break out the frickin running pants, hat, & gloves again.
I signed up for LP because my idiot friends signed up. Peer pressure, I guess and…I want to try to qualify for Hawaii this time. My other IM was to see if i could make it.
The lifestyle, the people I’ve met because of it, the travel. Those are the big ones. Trying to improve each time is in there too. Kona was a very big and pleasant surprise that just came along.
I’ve found that people usually fall into one of two camps–you do one and become addicted and can’t stop (or don’t want to), or you do one and that’s it.
It’s only selfish if you make it that way. If you get up at 5am and train for an hour or two every day before anyone else is even awake the family never notices. My wife and kids love going to Ironman races especially Hawaii. I told them I might take a break next year and skip Hawaii and they were bummed. Maybe I won’t afterall.
My position is a bit different in that both the wife and I have trained and raced IM in the same year on a number of occasions. I count myself lucky! We are both taking the year off to recharge the battries by road racing and staying in bed till 6am!
Here are some of my random thoughts on the subject . On the one side there is the gordo type all or nothing existance then on the other extreme is the person who wants to check off his to do list which might include one marathon, one IM, paragliding, and deep sea diving. Who is to say one or the other has got it right or wrong
In between these extreme is a huge range of motives and experiences. Furthermore, We are always looking to perfection (perfect bike, perfect race, perfect training schedule even perfect ME big gear trainer session) however I dont see why this has to be the case. If I trained on average of 10hr per week for 5 years decide on a whim to enter IM (non NA IM of course) and finish in 14hrs, when my potential is 10hrs (yeah right :)) There is nothing wrong with that and as such its doable.
For your first few IM I think its a much bigger deal, at least it was to me. Granted only done 5 of them. But if I was given the opportunity and had the motivation to train for an IM in say 3months time, it could be done and I would have fun training for it .
I have to admit I have no kids, a rather well paying job, live in a nice apartment in a really nice part of the world and have a totally undestanding spouse who might just join me an inpromptu IM race.
Are we addicted, I would have to say yes but not to IM or even triathlons but sport in general
In the grand scheme of things very, very few people are privleged enough to even consider doing it. It is a gift not to be squandered. It is a beautiful sport: Beautiful sunrises, water, roads, terrain, crowds, venues, challenges. It keeps me fit. It gives me that elusive and valuable feeling inside that I belong to a fraternity, a group, that I am a player and a part of something big. It is the opportunity to be in the big show. The history and origin and pure Americana, pure sport. It provides a portal into the most fearsome frontier of all exploration: Yourself. The discomfort and pain makes a kiss feel so good. Without the pain and the discomfort and the difficulty and the long training you cannot possibly understand the value of a hot shower, a cold drink and clean sheets. The equipment is the closest thing I will ever get to being a Formula 1 driver with a $10 million race car. It is something I do entirely for myself: It is private. It has provided me with an identity: When I am on an airplane travelling to another country to race, when I go through passport control on the way to a race, when I arrive at the check-in counter at the airport and they ask the reason for travel, I tell them, “I am an athlete going to Ironman.”
Slick, I understand what you are saying but I think it is a bit more complicated than just getting up and working out before your family notices that you got a workout in.
I imagine that it is a thrill to have a SO out there competing come race day. IM races are a lot of fun for those of us who don’t have any emotional investment in the outcome, so having a loved one compete must be that much more thrilling.
But I’m struck by the number of competitiors who have large families (and I define large as greater than 2 kids–arbitrary to be sure) who train for and compete in IM races. I don’t know what the numbers really are, but TV coverage certainly favors young families in their human interest coverage. I can’t help but think how much nicer it would be for the entire family if the athlete got up at 5 am, not to train, but to do the laundry or clean up to give the other spouse a break every once in a while.
I’m not making any judgements, but I think you’d agree that successful IM training certainly takes the commitment of the family. It certainly seems to take some free time away from them.
Addiction…the people…always looking to perfection…boredom…the “privilage”…the pain you love to hate…
These answers all give me the chills, because it seems quite apparent that we all do it for very similar reasons, and yet have all felt like Tri-sg at one point or another…the long training hours can definitely wear on you quickly. I promise you though it will all be worth it on race day, no matter how your first IM pans out…you’ll quickly forget all the long hours when you cross the finish line & hear “Congratulations, you are an IRONMAN!”
Actually, you’ll forget those long hours long before you cross the finish line…I’ll never forget my first IM: my wife beat me out of the water (the only time that has ever happened), I got three flats on the bike, & finally caught her on the run, where we decided to finish together…at mile 17 of the run, we began talking of which IM was going to be our next – we had previously decided that after our first, we were going to start having children – a decision that has been placed on hold for another few years…
Whether you return for another is up to you…I can understand the pressures of “missing out” on family time; I’m lucky enough to have a wife who trains & competes right along side of me…
I’m not making any judgements, but I think you’d agree that successful IM training certainly takes the commitment of the family. It certainly seems to take some free time away from them.<<
Now really, is 100% of one’s free time spent doing something with the family??? My parents have been married for 50 years and they both have their own thing that they do, apart from each other. Maybe all these family people have excellent time management skills.
I’m not making any judgements, but I think you’d agree that successful IM training certainly takes the commitment of the family. It certainly seems to take some free time away from them.<<
My wife if a runner and loves going to races, we chose not to breed like wild animals. So our family time is spending weekends going to different races or going to the park to run, I don’t think there is a template as to what family time is suppose to be.
I can think of a dozen stupid reasons why I do IM:
I want world peace (Osama would never have had time for the nasty stuff if he was training for one)
I couldn’t think of a better reason to shave my legs
I wanted to be able to supply my girlfriend’s hair salon with magazines
I wanted more toys so I sold the wife and the house
I wanted more women but I didn’t get any
I thought it might give me a personality - it did, see next point
I was sick of all the chaos in my life, stuff would just happen and I wanted to take control, I wanted a training plan, a nutrition plan, a hydration plan, a race plan, a year on year plan, a periodization plan, a weight plan, a sleeping plan, which forced the final elimination of unplanned social things, so now I had a social plan too.
I wanted the tattoo too
I wanted an all year round tan (you have to pick the right place)
I wanted to do more on my holidays
I wanted to find stuff - like golf balls, wallets, torches, keys, even lost dogs!
I wanted an excuse to fall sleep at boring dinner parties
I just wonder if TOMORROW, IM racing is GONE from the face of this earth…what will everyone do with the 10+ hrs onwards of spare time each week? Would the time go into something more fulfilling?
IS THERE something more fulfilling?
Perhaps IM racing has totally be ingrained into one’s identity that its quite difficult to define one’s purpose without its existence…
