I still get emotional looking back at this triumphant moment... A year ago this weekend I was attempting the seemingly impossible task of completing a full Ironman distance triathlon. After a year of training sometimes five or more hours a day, I was as ready as I could be, but there was still that little tiny bit of doubt at the back of my mind. How could someone who weighed over 230 pounds at one point and had been almost completely sedentary really swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then top that off with a full-marathon at 26.2 miles. How was this even possible??
What I have come to realize over the last couple of years is that impossible is relative. And what I mean by that is that we tend to base what is impossible for us on what we perceive is our current level and how far we feel we are from the impossible goal we want to reach. When my friend Karrie first approached me about doing an Ironman, I honestly thought she was crazy to even think I could do such a thing. She believed in me much more than I believed in myself, which is pretty sad when you think about it. In my head all I could think about was what I couldn't do. I couldn't swim 100 yards in a pool without feeling like I was going to drown...how could I possibly think I could swim 2.4 miles in open water? I had never ridden more than 30 miles on my mountain bike and had not been on a racing bike since I was 20 years-old. There was no way I could ride 112 miles. And while I had run several half-marathons, I was not very fast and it was impossible for me to think I could finish a full marathon let alone do so after the ridiculous swim and bike miles that would come before that run.
What I have come to realize over the last couple of years is that impossible is relative. And what I mean by that is that we tend to base what is impossible for us on what we perceive is our current level and how far we feel we are from the impossible goal we want to reach. When my friend Karrie first approached me about doing an Ironman, I honestly thought she was crazy to even think I could do such a thing. She believed in me much more than I believed in myself, which is pretty sad when you think about it. In my head all I could think about was what I couldn't do. I couldn't swim 100 yards in a pool without feeling like I was going to drown...how could I possibly think I could swim 2.4 miles in open water? I had never ridden more than 30 miles on my mountain bike and had not been on a racing bike since I was 20 years-old. There was no way I could ride 112 miles. And while I had run several half-marathons, I was not very fast and it was impossible for me to think I could finish a full marathon let alone do so after the ridiculous swim and bike miles that would come before that run.
One of my biggest running heroes! I have an inspirational running friend named Tony that, like me, was a sedentary couch potato, overweight and not looking as though he would live to a ripe old age if he continued on the path he was heading. His doctor basically told him he needed to change, or else! He started by just walking his dog Chewbacca, and recently he has been excelling at running those crazy 100-mile ultra-marathons. If you had asked Tony five years ago if he would have been able to even run 5 miles, he would have told you that was impossible. But impossible is relative! Now he knows that virtually nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough, train hard enough, and then give it your 100% effort.
One of Tony's posts actually inspired me to write this blog this week. Don't limit yourself because what you want to do seems impossible. Like Tony shares in this photo from his Facebook page, it is those first miles that are actually the most difficult. Do not let your brain tell you what you cannot do. Push yourself beyond what you think is possible and I know your seemingly impossible dreams will come true. Tony and I did not let our brains push us around, and those negative little voices have been pretty silent these days, because we have made the impossible possible!
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
Christopher Reeve
One of Tony's posts actually inspired me to write this blog this week. Don't limit yourself because what you want to do seems impossible. Like Tony shares in this photo from his Facebook page, it is those first miles that are actually the most difficult. Do not let your brain tell you what you cannot do. Push yourself beyond what you think is possible and I know your seemingly impossible dreams will come true. Tony and I did not let our brains push us around, and those negative little voices have been pretty silent these days, because we have made the impossible possible!
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
Christopher Reeve
Not only did I finish Ironman, but I did it in 15:20:29, more an hour faster than I thought I would finish. I was just hoping to beat the cut-off time of 16:30:00.
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