Time for Another Challenge

For the last year, I've been telling Mike (my cousin in Seattle) that he should really consider doing an Ironman. He's a good cyclist, and everytime I go running with him, he kicks my butt. I even suggested that we do one together. Since he lives in the northwest and is from Idaho, and I've heard great things about Ironman Coeur d'Alene, I thought that would be a fun one for us to do together.

Ironman (branded) races are notoriously hard to get into. Usually, you need to sign up within a couple days of this year's event (or hours, in the case of IM Wisconsin) to get into the following year's race. And, I thought I'd been doing a good job of reminding Mike of that. Perhaps I didn't do as good of a job as I could have. Or perhaps I thought he was just not as excited about the idea as I was. Either way, I hadn't heard much out of Mike on the IM front, so I guess I just figured that he was going to concentrate on other things right now, and maybe he'd do an Ironman in a few years.

More and more this spring I'd been thinking that I should wait even another year before trying another Ironman. There is so much training to do, and, mentally, I wasn't sure I was up for that. I thought about focusing on some shorter distance events in 2007 and 2008 and then ramping back up for another IM in 2009. As CDA drew more and more near, the better that idea sounded. By last weekend (the 2007 IM CDA race), I was totally convinced that '09 would be my year.

Just to be sure, though, I brought it up one more time to Mike this week, and guess what?? He wanted to do it! So, I spent the last 48 hours stressing (considerably) about doing the race in '08. The chain of events in my brain went a little like this:

1. You don't want to do another IM next year. You just don't. End of story.

2. It would be nice to do one that you can train for all winter and spring, then still enjoy the rest of your summer without the stress of training... but you should really wait til '09. Really. Yeah, that's what you should do.

3. It would give you a major goal to help with your training this fall and winter. Or, you could just eat junk food and drink beer. Yeah, that sounds better! Beer and cookies!

4. Well, okay. Maybe. No, you can't do another one right now. No. No, no, no! Oh, and it's probably the same weekend as the Hy-Vee race. Absolutely not, in that case!

5. Oh, but maybe the date for CDA will be the last weekend in June! Oh, that way you could do both!

6. Crap. Hy-Vee and CDA are on the same day. That means you're doing Hy-Vee. End of story.

7. But really, your family means WAY more to you than some big race here in Des Moines. Sure, you've got lots of friends who will do Hy-Vee, but Mike will be doing an Ironman! Friends come and go, but you may not forgive yourself for missing Mike's accomplishment.

8. Just go to Idaho for Mike and cheer him on, then you can do your own race in '09. That's a good compromise.

9. If you're AT the race, but not IN the race, will you still be happy? No. Sign up for the stupid race and get it over with before you change your mind again, or worse yet, it fills up and you can't get in even if you want to!

So, needless to say, I signed up! 51 weeks to go!

I haven't talked to Mike yet since I signed up. Meghan says he out climbing some mountain. That sounds like Mike. He's just crazy enough to sign up for an Ironman without ever having done any triathlon in his life!

Ironman Wisconsin will always be a very special race for me, but I am REALLY looking forward to this one now, too! I think my parents will drive over, and I'm sure that Jeff and Jeanette will be there from Boise. Who knows who else will show up!