Last year, when I was training for Steelhead 70.3, I toyed with the thought of doing an Ironman. My wife Ellen said that she thought it was inevitable that I would do an Ironman event. I told her that if I were to do an IM, I would need a triathlon bike. When she didn't flinch at my comment, I knew I was on my way if I wanted to do it.
Back in November, Ellen and I talked about the possibility of doing an IM. The top two issues came up next; time and money.
I had heard about the time commitment needed to train, but there were things to talk about and do. When Ellen approved my endeavor, the topic of expenses came up. She already knew that it was going to take significant amounts of time to properly prepare and train for the event.
Long story short, Ellen figured out how we could pay for a triathlon bike. Some of you might be wondering, "why do you need a triathlon bike?" I have 112 reasons why. Since I am going to be on the bike for 112 miles, I need to be able to be aerodynamic, efficient, and comfortable (well, relatively comfortable). I found out that I needed all of the extras for the bike, including spare bike tube, C02, speedometer, training tire for riding indoors, etc. It all adds up fast! The bike became my birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, etc presents.
That's just the beginning...the entry fee for an Ironman event is $600!
We discussed and Ellen agreed that I needed a coach in order to successfully train for and complete the event. I joined Personal Best Training and hired Coach Sean Edwards to prepare me for the IM event. More costs but well worth it. Coach Sean will be putting together my training schedule and monitoring my progress, as well as meeting with me and monitoring my training.
Fortunately, I already had a YMCA membership, which is where I will swim (and sometimes run, when the weather outside is not conducive to running).
Another cost that I needed to incur was a triathlon watch to train with. While the one I had was good for running, it's battery life was not sufficient for my long training sessions to come. Cha-ching! I used Christmas and birthday money to finance that.
So...we're in and highly committed to doing the race...and maybe should be committed!
Where am I doing my Ironman event? Louisville, KY.
http://ironmanlouisville.com/
With the expenses already adding up and many 2012 IM events already full, I decided on Ironman Louisville, on August 26. While the weather will be hot, the location is only two hours from home. That will allow me to go down and ride and run the course so that I can get familiar with it.
When my daughter Katie heard I was going to do an Ironman, she said "we're going to Kona!" [as in Kona, Hawaii, site of the Ironman World Championship...I wish...] I had to laugh.
For those of you who are not aware of what is involved with an Ironman event, it is a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. While I have completed nine marathons, I have never done them after swimming and biking those distances.
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