Signing Up

Signing Up

I wish I could tell you I have some tremendous story…like I dreamed of this when I was a little girl…or that I have some epic narrative as the reason I signed up for doing an IronMan…but I can’t. Throughout the year, many people have asked me why I signed up for this insane race, IronMan. So, this is why I’m writing about it. Sorry, you won’t tear up and maybe you’ll even forget this entry, but here’s why and how I signed up.

Two years ago I met Dave Seevers. Actually, I hadn’t met him yet. I read an email at work that he had written. He had just completed an IronMan race in Florida for his first time and he wrote an email that viraled around our workplace which described his heroic adventure on race day. Tears came to my eyes as inspiration overwhelmed me- the sheer magnitude of this accomplishment was something I had never even dreamed of, nor saw myself ever doing. I mean, I was a marathoner, a runner…I never rode one of those scary, skinny bikes... and besides, my 5 year old niece and nephew could both swim farther and faster than me. I wish I could tell you what that email said, but I can’t remember it. I just remember trying to wrap my mind around the fact that this man had swam 2.4 miles, rode 112 on his bike, and then ran a full 26.2 mile marathon and then wrote an email high as a kite to top it off-impossible. I’d never even heard of this race. I had to meet this guy….and I worked in the same building!!! I’m not gonna lie; I considered this dude to be kind of a celebrity. I don’t know if ‘normal’ people would have read that email and automatically decided the athlete was some sort of famous person, but I thought anyone who could do that had to have some sort of high level above a my entry level racing society.

Sure enough, a few weeks later, he happened to be running on the treadmill next to me at our work gym. Being the shy gal I am, I said something like, “are you Dave Seevers, the guy who just completed an IronMan?” Indeed, he was and he even talked to me!!! He wasn’t arrogant and didn’t ‘act’ famous at all. He seemed so normal, so capable, just like you and me.…and he told me his story. I interrupted him constantly with questions: how did you eat? How did you go to the bathroom? How long did it take you? Did it hurt? Did you cry? What did you see? Why did you do it? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! I couldn’t get enough. I fed off these stories. In the back of my mind, this Dave Seevers had planted a seed. I had do one. I didn’t know when or when or how…and I didn’t have the audacity to declare it out loud, but one day, I would do one…..(hmmmm…First I would have to learn how to swim... )Then, he told me his wife’s story…and I about fell off the treadmill…she had finished 4!!!! Remarkable…simply remarkable was all I could think.

Time passed and I continued to run…because that’s what I did. I ran. I ran and ran and ran and ran. A full year went by.

My husband and I don’t have cable. In fact we only recently got a flat screen over Christmas. I detest TV- its like burning daylight. Anyway, we do get one channel fairly clearly, when its clear, and that channel is Universal Sports. I tell you what, I watched the IronMan documentaries that Winter over and over and over. Every time I sat down, which wasn’t often, one of those bad boys was on. Every time I watched, I cried. People missing limbs and folks with cancer were completing these things. Then, I started meeting people… I met the local Omaha woman who is famous around here for holding several Kona World records—she’s in her 50s or 60s! She did these things. I met Jodi, Dave’s wife, in person! And I actually got to swim with her…she gave me some tips. I discovered that one of my runner friends, Bill Weeks , who was an animal on the bike, was training for an IronMan. I just kept meeting people who had done them...I felt like I kept seeing little signs that directed me to sign up.

Then, Omaha finally decided to put on its first triathlon. That was one year ago. So my hubs and I bought bikes, trained up and did the Papillion sprint, then Omaha’s tri. Then, Michelle and I thought we’d try Pigman- a half distance (I wrote about that experience J)

Then, we blindly figured that a whole was manageable if we were capable of completing a half. Sometimes its better if you don’t overthink things and just do it.

So Dave, my sister, and I began to email, plot, and plan. Were we gonna do this? Which one? How? We decided on Madison because we could drive, its close enough for friends and family to come and close enough to volunteer. See, at Madison if you volunteer, you secure your spot 100%, otherwise if you sign up online, you risk not making it…these races fill up in like 30 minutes online.

Somehow I managed to encourage one of my girlfriend’s (Gina Beena) to do this with me, but she was going to roll the dice and sign up online. I didn’t want to risk it so I hopped on the volunteer-train. I figured as long as I wasn’t alone, I could do it. My sister Michelle was onboard originally, but faced some injuries so she put her greenlight on hold for the time being. Also, Dave and Jodi decided to signup for IronMan Canada, but would be training alongside us for the year. I figured I was safe with these two veterans training by my side.

Dave, Jodi, Javi, and I drove to Madison about this time last year. We volunteered. I got to see what the race was like…it electrified me…in a good way I mean. I volunteered in T2. Now keep in mind, this is the changing area when the women get off their bikes after riding over 100 miles and put sneakers on to go face the run. My volunteering- in a period of 4 hours, helping these women prepare for battle, was life changing.

If you don’t have a goal right now. GET ONE. Get a piece of paper and write one down. I don’t care if you make a decision to walk once a week or sign up for sprint tri or something or sign up for an IronMan….but get a goal. I say this because the women that do IronMan are just like you and they are just like me. But they have a clear, defined goal that’s driving them forward-giving them purpose- and changing their lives. If some of these 200+ pound women, 75 year old + women, cancer laden, amputees and even dreadful teeny boppers can do this incredible feat- you and me can make a goal and get there. After experiencing this day, there simply are no excuses.

The women would rush into the changing area blurry-eyed, fatigued, unable to speak articulately. One of the first things to go are your fine motor skills, so they couldn’t undo Band-Aids or untie shoes. I can’t tell you how many pairs of bike shoes I took off that day and how many pairs of stinky socks I pulled off, but I can tell you I didn’t care. I didn’t care about the putrid smells wafting about: the sweat, urine, vomit, icy hot, sun screen, peanut butter entrenching these exhausted women…I didn’t care because they had a goal and they were reaching it. I even massaged a lady’s foot trying to rub a cramp out. I just kept thinking, if it was the other way around, I would want the help. Ohh, the stories I heard. One lady had stupidly- sorry, but she was stupid- drank only one bottle of water during the entire ride…she was puking up green bile.—very dangerous.

Now keep in mind, when you’re in a state of complete exhaustion, your emotions become highly, highly sensitive. One lady I was helping was putting on her hat and on the brim, face down, was a picture of her father. He had died shortly before the race. She began telling me all about him and what a good man he was to her and how he did races with her. She was dedicating this race, this day, to him. She began to cry, but tears of pure joy at the fact that she was actually accomplishing what she had set out to do- a goal-all in her father’s name. She told me how she knew he was watching and racing with her. Off she went: energized and ready to take on the 26.2 miles of road before her, energized with tears in her eyes, but with her father ‘by her side.’

These are the stories that come out of IronMan. People are remarkable, and I truly believe, capable of doing just about anything. Seeing people cross the finishline, kiss the ground, hug one another….fall over, and do cartwheels in jubilation all in the name of reaching a goal, completing something, committing to something, brings me a sense of drive so deep, its hard to explain- a sense of pleasure- a sense of peace. When you push beyond the limits, you enter a very thin space between somewhere here and somewhere else. All of these precious finishers had set out to complete a goal and successfully hit the mark.

The next morning, with my famous shepherds-mentors Dave and Jodi and my number one support, my husband, by my side, I took my place in line for the next 5 hours and waited to sign up. And then I did it; paid, signed up. For the next year, I would train to face the challenge of my lifetime. I signed up for IronMan.

Wanna know the coolest thing? I wasn’t alone. The day prior I had texted Bob, my brother- aka one of The Siblings, a picture of the bike transition along with some other cool race pics. I sent him a text message, off-handedly suggesting he signup online. Turns out, my brother Bob signed up online that day as well!!! Funny how it took me a couple of years to get my act together and my courage up to sign up…it took him a single text message... what nerve!!! A few days later, on a charity ticket my sister did too-rolling her dice on her injuries…turns out The Siblings would conquer this thing together. My girlfriend got in online and so did one of her buddy’s whom I didn’t know at the time, but now, through training is a very close friend-Michelle B!!!…training tends to do that- bring people together).

Wrapping this “sign-up” experience up….I’ll end with a brief piece that I wrote during our IronMan kick-off training party…

Here’s what I originally put on paper for the reasons I signed up…kind of rambling jibberish I think:

Why I’m Doing an IronMan

Because I can.

Because I am whole

Whole in God.

He gave me the Power

Motivation

Determination

And

I get to lean on Him the entire time…

I want to do this before I have babies. I used to cry from amazement or inspiration as I watched the documentaries on TV and I thought I could never do one of these races…

Then, I did a little tri…and then I did a longer tri….and then I did a half Iron and I thought, this wasn’t too bad…

Then, I knew I could do it.

And the training.. I knew would be fun…the people I train with-they are family.

Never pictured myself an athlete.

And Here I go…