Ironman 70.3 I: The background and the build-up

I guess it all started in January 2005 when I was at Big 5 looking for some swimming goggles. As any guy will tell you, a typical trip to a sporting goods store lasts about 2 hours, as you peruse through every section of the store, take a few swings of the newest baseball bats, shoot some hoops into the tied off basketball rims, make a few putts in the golf section, etc. etc. Well, on this fateful trip to the store, as I meandered about, I stumbled across a 50% off sale on all speedos.

At this point in time I had no business whatsoever with a speedo. I hadn't been in a pool since July 2004. I sure as hell hadn't swam laps in a pool since I took swimming lessons when I was 10, and I definitely didn't wear speedos back then. I was expecting to just buy some goggles and swim in my board shorts...But for some reason, I talked myself into it, and ended up spending $15 on a pair of speedos that would forever change my life.

Now, I had already gotten the ball rolling on the whole "going to the gym" thing. After my 31 day road trip where I put on 20 pounds of beer and pizza, I was working out 3-4 times per week for the most part, taking a few 1-hour spinning classes, hitting the elliptical for half an hour, maybe put in 1-3 miles on the treadmill or the local sidewalk, spend an hour lifting. But I was still very far away from wearing a speedo with any confidence. Yet, 24 hour fitness had an indoor pool, so at the end of every workout, I'd head to the locker room and throw on the speedo...IMMEDIATELY followed by my board shorts. I'd then slowly walk to the pool, put my goggles on, and when no one was looking, I'd quickly rip off my shorts and jump in the pool, minimizing the chance that anyone could see me standing around in the speedos. When I finished my swim, I'd again wait for a strategic "no-shame" opportunity and jump out of the pool, grab my towel and cover up.

It wasn't a perfect system...but it was a system. Biking, Running, Swimming...It was all getting done....

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Fast forward 2.4 years
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May 19th, 2007....I pack $3500 worth of triathlon equipment into my car and drive 2 hours south to Orlando, Florida, to check in to the Florida Half Ironman Triathlon.

Now marathons & half marathons are one thing...anybody does them. With the exception of Boston, every marathon is filled with a bunch of flimsy participants who only take running half-seriously.

Short Triathlons are a little more serious. Triathlon is a sport that it takes a lot more $$ and commitment to get into, so your average competitor is usually pretty serious about the event and it is a much tougher field to compete against.

But when we step it up to IRONMAN. Let me tell you that is a whole 'nother world altogether. Anybody crazy enough to get to the point in their life when they decide, "yea sure I can go for a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run back to back to back," is insanely committed to their craziness. The average racer probably has a bike worth at least $5000, trains 2-3 hours a day, and grew up competing on a swim team or as a cross country runner. We're not messing around anymore. This is the cream of the crop and they've traveled far and wide to get to Disney World so they can strip down to their speedos at 6:00AM on a Sunday morning and put themselves through a living hell.

And I was one of them.

The only difference being, I'm sure I was the only one out of 2000 who decided it would be a good idea to go to the Britney Spears concert at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney 8 hours before the race started.

To Be Continued....