Ironman Canada 2012

I have to admit that I have been rather cagey about this whole Ironman Canada 2012 thing.  From the moment registration opened in August I’ve thought about signing up.  If you can remember back then (from the only post I wrote in August) I knew that signing up right when general entry opened was not the right thing to do. 

I had so many questions I needed to answer.  I’d taken so much time off that running and working out was really hard.  I had no idea how difficult or how easy it might be to fall back into training.  You ask a lot of your body as you build towards Ironman and I had lost my base training that I had going into training for my first Ironman.  As I continued to get back in to regular training the legs came back and the workouts started to feel better and better.  I started to believe that I could be ready.  Thankfully I had quite a bit of time between when general entry closed and when the community fund slots would open up to gain confidence back in my athletic ability.  Friends and old teammates would ask me if I had signed up for Ironman and my response would be, “No, I’m not registered for Ironman at the moment.”

With my body and brain feeling more ready came the next question to answer.  I want to train for Ironman and I want to be a good wife.  The first time I signed up for Ironman I was single so it was easy to be selfish and say “I want to do this for me and it isn’t going to affect anyone.”  I now know that signing up for Ironman is really not an individual decision.  During training you are busy, tired, grumpy and hungry!  It can be difficult to be the best friend/girlfriend/fiancé/wife during this time.  I’m going to do my best to ensure that I take time out for us during training.  The Husband is terribly supportive of me racing again (in fact it is one of the things he loves about me) so that helps to make this crazy journey a bit easier.

So I’m sure you are wondering about why I wanted to sign up for 2012.  After all, didn’t I say that Ironman will always be there?  Why race in 2012 instead of waiting until 2013?  The truth is I really want to race with my friends.  Ironman is a big journey and having close friends going through it at the same time as you is huge.  My closest girlfriends and teammates Tara, Kelly and Pam are all racing in 2012.  I would have been really sad to miss out on this experience with them.  They certainly reminded me of how much they wanted me to race with them as well on a fairly regular basis these past few months.  It feels great to have such amazing friends.

Photo by the amazingly talented Sakura Photography

On August 26th, 2012 we’ll be on the beach together in Penticton…no doubt wearing decidedly different clothing.  I’m looking forward to it!