Sure the training plan was 30 weeks, but the preperation was a lifetime. Granted, I was 33 years old the morning of race day. Therefor about 28 years of my lifetime were part of the experience leading up to the day but most likely had a negative effect on my fitness.
Anyway, this is about that one morning. The one day that I dreamed about for years and trained specifically for 30 weeks to achieve. That morning was my first Ironman. Ironman Coeur D’Alene 2009.
A nice thing about racing in Coeur D’alene is the fact that the sun rises early and sets late. So even though the start is early, the sun is already up and the day is bright. It made starting the day pretty easy. I still felt tired, but it was bright and there were thousands of other people up and about too. It actually felt more like 11:00am then 5:00am. Ofcourse, that could have just been positive nerves as well.
My wife, duaghter, and I arrived at the beach with my special needs bags and wetsuit ready to go. I immediately found a volunteer to take care of my markings. Number 714 on my arms and my age on my legs. I was ready to go.
Oh wait, drop the special needs bags off, put fresh nutrition on my bike, pump my tires, and then I was ready…