Ironman Cozumel - Post-Race Thoughts

Before

After
Iron Brothers!

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that normally I'd write a short play-by-play on the a race I just did.  However, this blog isn't my official race report for myself and I don't really want to write that up twice so I'll just give you a link to it.  I feel that, for this post, it's more appropriate to let you know how I feel about and what I've learned from training for and completing an Ironman.  I'm sure that most of you can go out and train your butts off to get to an Ironman finish line, but what makes Ironman special is different to each and every one of us. It's the "why" that really drives you through this, not so much for a finishers medal or simply to be called Ironman.  

Like I said, Ironman can be many things to many different people.  To me, it truly was a journey, to others, its a lifestyle.  At this point I don't know if I can or want to make a lifestyle of it.  Getting to the point that I can finish this race was a huge undertaking that with other things going on with my life and how I hope paths I choose lead me, I don't know if I can sustain it.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute of it.  Thing is, I won't recommend nor dissuade anyone to do a race of this magnitude.  However, I do encourage you to at least once in your life do something that pushes you physically and mentally further than you had ever thought you've gone or will go.  If ironman is the vehicle you choose, great!  It will definitely satisfy that need to test your limits.  You'll learn so much about yourself you'll wonder if you ever knew yourself at all.  You'll learn about your physical and mental limits and how much you can push them.  You might learn some time management.  Put it this way, I work 40hrs a week, go to school and drive 80mi on Fridays in traffic to pick my son up from school, try to maintain my social life, all on top of an average of 14-15hrs a week training for ironman (often more than that!).  You might figure out what you really want in life, or what you don't want.  You learn who are those that mean the most to you.  Those are the people that stood by you along the way, cheered you on, encouraged you, and helped you when you were down.  They are the ones that supported you when things got rough, they loved you when you were mad at yourself, and they are the ones that gave you a reason to keep going.  

Marty on the run!

As you can see, its so much more than finishing a 140.6mi race.  The race itself is a celebration of everything you've gone through.  The journey is the tough part and the race is just you saying thank you to everyone close to you and also thanking yourself for not giving up during your journey.  As of right now, I'm happy its over and I don't really have plans to do it again in the near future.  Not that I don't want to (not that I do either!), but there are more important parts of my life that need my attention right now (family, school, etc.).  Its funny because I'm the type of athlete that wants to keep getting better, faster all the time, but with all the time thinking to myself during those long hours on the bike and sometimes on the run is when this hit me the most.  My mind doesn't wander much when I train, I'm mainly focused on the workout and what's going on at the moment.  I don't even listen to music!  But on those long rides and runs you just have no choice but to let your thoughts go elsewhere.  Go out for an 80, 90, or 100+ mile ride and you'll know what I'm talking about.  This is when your thoughts will go deep and you may figure lots of things out about yourself.


Training day in and day out really is the hard part.  You have to sacrifice a lot and if you don't warn family and friends about the upcoming months, they may just get mad at you for it.  But the race...oh my gosh, the race!  Even though training is the longest and toughest part of the journey, the race is so physically and mentally exhausting.  I have never sustained so much effort in my life and there were definitely some dark moments that I had a hard time getting out of.  If you remember from my last post that I have those that would eventually help me cross the finish line, without them I really think I would have kept falling into those dark moments during the race.  I'll admit, I almost quit.  Somewhere with 8mi left to go I was sitting down on the side of the road with my head in my hands.  But it really is amazing how much you can learn during training if you use your training time wisely and focus on all aspects of the race.  I knew that my son wanted me to finish (he asked if I got first place!), my parents wanted me to finish (alive), Marty and I of course wanted each other to finish (can't beat doing your first IM with your brother), and friends wanted me to finish (and watch me Gangnam Style it across the finish line, which I did and thank goodness there was no video of it!).  So yeah, not getting up to go another 8mi seemed like a really feeble Idea.  This really goes for anything in life, do what you do for a reason and you'll always find a way to accomplish your goals.  And make those reasons special, not something arbitrary like a medal or an M-dot tattoo.   

Get this bike away from me!

Ok, I can probably go on and on but I'm sure you don't have all day to dedicate to read my blog!  Thank you to everyone that read this and followed us on our journey to Ironman.  I think I may just keep up this blog for races that we do.  Oh yes, I will continue to race, just no Ironman for now!  Well, maybe you were expecting a race report, but I felt that this was meant more for my feelings, emotions, and experiences I've had during this whole thing. But if its a race report you want, here you have it, enjoy!  Until the next race!

Tim's IMCOZ Race Report

Us and the boys
Thanks for coming guys!

Nothing like a post-race Cuban
I didn't inhale I swear!