Matthew, this is for you…
I had lunch with my old friend Matthew the other day. Matthew started running about 18 months ago and this year, 2009, is running two marathons. He’s just done Tokyo and is up for London on 26 April.
He told me over lunch that he is hooking up with another college friend who is turning 50 this year and they are going to the Ironman in San Diego in 2010. An Ironman is a swim (2.5 miles) followed by a bike ride (100 miles) and then a marathon (26 miles). Matthew says he hates swimming but is looking forward to buying the new toys - a super duper bike, in particular.
I found this amazing, inspirational, scary video on YouTube about Ironman to inspire Matthew along his Ironman journey:
So, now, I’m thinking - there are a number of seniors on the video who’ve done the Ironman, someone with one leg, a guy in a wheelchair… if they can do it, could I? I certainly wouldn’t mind having the kind of abs and superfit body that some of these Ironpeople have. But then again, the pain, the agony, the collapsing in a heap… I’m too much of a wuss! I shall have to do it vicariously through YouTube - and my mad friends like Matthew…
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Mon, April 20th, 2009 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
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April 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
NP, Yang-May, you could do it. If you wanted to, you could :)
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
You definitely could ….. but it would literally take over your life. All your spare time would be spent training or thinking about training. It’s not the “doing it” that’s the problem…. it’s getting to the start line prepared that is the true agony. Just think though - you could write a book about it.
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Hi Melanie and Susan - yes,I probably could do it if I wanted to. But do I want to put myself through that?! Hmm, but if I did do it, might the book be called “One woman’s journey from Ironing Woman to Ironman”?
April 25th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Yang May, thank you for this! Not sure whether I feel more inspired or utterly daunted. All I know is right now I am not much more than “ironing man” either. But it does put tomorrow’s marathon in perspective, I think it may give me a small spring in my step! Oh, and I suppose I really should point out that actually what Marcus and I are planning for next year is a mere “Half Iron Man” or “70.3″ (”aluminium man”…?) which is 1.2 miles swim, 56m bike and a half-marathon (13.1m). Not to be sniffed at nevertheless but, at this stage, at least I feel I can relate mentally to the 3 components (will need to work at the swimming, though). Full Iron Man…? I’ll need to work on those abs first. Anyway, good luck for tomorrow and I look forward to our next running bores’ session!