By Eileen

Like how many things in the past year began, my Ironman adventure started with Erica, a very persuasive person! Erica and I met in a graduate psychology class and later ran into each other in a spin class that we attended. It was there that I met Camila too! Erica and Camila had signed up for a half Ironman. When the weather started getting warmer and their training regimen increased, they encouraged me to run after our spin class with them. Then they tried to get me to sign up for the race. I agreed to go, but considering that I had never done a triathlon, I signed up to do a sprint triathlon. 

I trained with Erica and Camila all summer and on the day of the race, I almost switched my registration from the sprint to the half. The sprint was a great experience (minus having two flat tires during the bike), but being the competitive person that I am, I of course had a twinge of regret that I hadn’t switched given that I had done almost the same amount of training as the others. That just meant that the next year I would have to do a half Iron Man!

Later that summer, Erica, Camila, Chris and I volunteered for the Madison Ironman. We had the first shift for the marathon section. We saw all of the pros and the happy athletes (biased picture of the whole event). During the shift Erica talked about how she was going to sign up for the full Iron Man and said that I should too. My response, “No, Erica. I’ll train with you. You’ll do the race. I’ll get jealous because I’ll realize that I could have done it. And then we’ll do it together the next year. That’s how things work with us!” Erica did not take no for an answer. She listed off all of the reasons why I should do it this year and eventually I ended up on her side.

Next we had to convince Camila! After hearing us both provide persuasive arguments, Camila caved too.

So, the next day we all got up early, rode our (commuter) bikes to the Monona Terrace, and sat in line, ready to sign up.

There are plenty of reasons why not to do an Ironman, but I decided that it’s all about one’s personal values. If I think this race and the year of training is a valuable accomplishment, then I’d much rather do this than go on some week-long vacation. This is a whole year that we’re talking about here! And I get to do this with two great friends! I’m not going to be isolated and chained down with my workouts. I’ll get to see my friends each day, talk, laugh, and train. My main goals for this adventure are: 1.) stay healthy (don’t get hurt!) and 2) stay positive. 

After a semester with this new goal in mind, I am still happy that I signed up. Although our training will drastically increase, I have managed to balance my workouts into my life so far. There are days when I’m less than thrilled to do my second workout for the day, but overall, it’s become a part of my schedule and often a good release.