My Louisville Ironman Finish

What to do

It's been about a week and a half now since I completed Ironman. I feel pretty normal - the only noticeable residue from Ironman being that I fatigue quickly in workouts or yard work. It'll probably take a month for that to completely go away.

After completing such a lofty goal as an Ironman, often times there is a let down. You've been training for months and sometimes years with this main objective in mind. You complete that objective, there is a few days of joyous satisfaction and then – well what then?

People who take on these crazy physical feats are naturally dreamers and/or goal oriented (and I guess that includes me). When the goal has been accomplished there is often a period of uncertainty and even melancholy. What do you do to top that experience? I had this problem after I accomplished qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I had dreamed about running Boston for over a decade. After I did it, it became difficult to train for marathons – the reason I had supposedly ran and trained for them in the first place was to qualify for Boston. I had lost my motivation. Then along came Ironman and I plunged into training so I could accomplish the goal of finishing.

The good news for me is that I have a lot of improving to do in the sport of triathlon. I have to admit that at first I was a little disappointed in my finish at Ironman Louisville. I had hoped to have a better time (my legs were fine but my stomach was not – it was frustrating). But I've become satisfied with my accomplishment. Doing an Ironman is not just a 17 hour challenge. It is a 6 month or year or more effort and it takes extreme determination and discipline during that time frame. I did that and I'm proud of it.

So now I have the opportunity to take on a new sport in which I have the ability to get better at. Unlike running, I don't have to compete against my personal records that I set when I was 18. I've never competed in triathlons so my "personal record sheet" is clear. That helps me in rebounding from the accomplishing the lofty goal of finishing Ironman. There are other triathlon "mountains" to conquer out there for me.

Next up for me will be Disney World – after a week in the parks, I'm doing an Olympic distance tri put on by Disney (I really wanted a triathlon shirt with the mouse on it). I plan on being slow and enjoying every stroke, peddle and stride.

I think I'll keep posting about my experiences trying to learn this sport. I'll probably change around the format a bit and make the Ironman Louisville accessible in one area (people seem to want to know what it takes to do one of these things).