Friday, October 20, 2006
The big introduction
My name is Charles and I have decided to train for an and compete in Ironman Canada as part of the Silicon Valley Team in Training team. For the next 10 months or so I will be training roughly 6 days a week by running, biking, swimming, and weight training to prepare myself for the big day and I plan to use this site to chronicle my journey. I will share all of the ups and downs of my training and fundraising as well as the emotional rollercoaster that is triathlon for me.
I will give a bit more of my history in a later entry, but for now I should probably tell you more about the Team in Training (TNT) in general and Ironteam in particular.
TNT is a charity endurance training program that has trained many thousands of everyday people to run marathons, 1/2 marathons, triathlons, century bike rides, and Ironman. They provide you with coaching, structured and supported training, a team of people to motivate you, and a group of honorees to inspire you. Honorees are people who have a personal experience with Leukemia or a related blood cancer who come out to remind us why we are training and inspire us to keep going when we get tired or cold or are just plain ready to stop. The team then provides transportation and lodging for the event as well as the entry to the event. In exchange for this support and help, we agree to raise money to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in funding research and patient and family support.
http://www.teamintraining.org
So what is Ironman? Ironman is a very long triathlon consisting of a 2.4 mile open water swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and finally a full marathon (26.2 mile run). Total distance is 140.6 miles and you must finish in 17 hours for it to count.
http://www.ironman.ca/
So why would I want to do such a thing? The obvious answer is the above section on the society, but in reality I could have done several smaller tri's to raise the funds without all of the time, effort, and suffering involved with an Ironman. The real reason is a topic for another day mostly because I am not sure that I fully understand why I am so attracted to the Ironman.
That is enough from me for now. My next post will have an update on my training for the last 2 weeks and then we can go from there.
