Pulling the Trigger

While enjoying my first cup of coffee this morning, I did something a little crazy. A little reckless perhaps? I'd been thinking about it for a while. After volunteering at Ironman this year, I was pretty much decided that yes, 2014 was the year.  It took all of 30 seconds at IM Whistler before I was swept up in the excitement. Then as time passed, I talked myself out of it. Then into it. Out of it. In. Out. In. Out. And then, before caffeine levels had reached a clear thinking threshold, this happened:

That's right... I pulled the trigger on an ironman race registration! I flipped back and forth between Challenge Penticton and Ironman Whistler, finally choosing Challenge for a few reasons:

• I'm afraid of the Whistler bike course, particularly the 35 km of climbing coming back to Whistler from Pemberton.
• Challenge has a much more generous cancellation/rollover policy than IMC does. Given my propensity for injury in the last 2 years, this was an important consideration.
• It looks like all the peeps I admire and adore from my tri club are going to be up in Penticton, doing the full or the half.
• There's a red carpet to the finish line. Hello! Maybe I'll have some stilettos waiting so I can cross that line in style! No? Yeah, maybe not.

So today, in addition to my #300aDAY challenge reps, I did an 8 km run at lunch with a friend, and then I hopped onto my tri-bike (on the trainer) when I got home and did a 1-hour speed pyramid workout. One thing is painfully clear: I need to vastly improve my fitness in the next 40.5 weeks (but who's counting?).

I am both excited and a little lot freaked out. I'm looking forward to the training (except the swimming), dropping into bed exhausted every night (but not getting out at 4 a.m. for the first workout of the day), and to the race day experience (but not the 24 hours of anxiety and doubt leading up to the start). So here we go!

Image from Challenge Penticton Facebook site

Don't worry. It's not the end of the story. I am sure my training and mental misery at what I've signed on for will provide fodder for several amusing blog entries.