Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tuesday after a very challenging day, I received a call from my friend Sharkie. We were both free and decided to meet at Panera to catch up. We had not actually seen each other since Steelhead.

As we ate , we relived the Steelhead experience. We both learned alot. My experince was much different than Sharkie's. I left it with a very positive feeling. It was the first part of a decision making process for next year. The second part is the Chicago Marathon.

The discussion lead to our trip to Florida to volunteer at the Ironman race. As you have probaly figured the other purpose of the trip gives us the opportunity, if we decide to, to sign up for IMFL. The discussion covered the challenges of the different Ironman courses. We went on to discuss training and goals for the winter. Of course there was thoughts on the possibilities of 2009 and training.

One thing that I find still sticking in my mind is doing and Iron-distance race but not one of the majors run by NA Sports. I would love to hear the words "You are an Ironman" as I cross the finish. As I watched several of the races this year, many finishers did not hear those words. Las night I was looking at the Great Floridian Triathlon. Same distance -great looking race. I guess I am questioning doing an actual "IRONMAN" race. Any thoughts???

Waddling with posibilities........................

3 comments:

SWTrigal said...

I have done IMFL and it is great (flat run/bike, easy swim)! But our club entertained the idea of the Great Floridian this year because many of us are fed up with NAS, pricing, cancellation policies, politics, difficulty getting in, etc..Now I come from the perspective of already hearing the "you are an Ironman" which to me is priceless but there are many great non NAS out there that awesome. Our club decided on "Beach to Battleship" in November 2009.Check it out-it has a half and whole IM..

IronWaddler said...

Thanks---I just checked it out!! Looks great.

IronSnoopy said...

Tough call. There's at least one great full here in Illinois. It was last weekend and it's called the Great Illini. There's Vineman in CA, Redman, OK, Beach to Battleship in NC, and, of course, the insane Silverman in Las Vegas (which I would highly advise against due to it's insane course).

On one hand,I think if you're only doing one longest distance tri in your life, it should be an NAS or WTC branded M-dot race.

But on the other hand, like swtrigal said -- they're ridiculously expensive and you get a tiny portion of that back if (GASP) something goes wrong in the YEAR between when you cough up the dough and actually toe the line.

I know if I do another IM, it won't be an M-dot race. Just can't afford it anymore (especially with 2 of us).

Exciting to think about, though!

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