I really enjoyed this column about a recent Ironman's experience:
You hit the point comparing the Iron Man events to the Super Bowl. Personally I have never watched a Super bowl or watched football on TV. Let me tell you one thing about Ironman events that most civilians might miss out on.
I trained, competed, and successfully completed my first full Ironman event June, 2009, in Coeur D’lene Idaho. It was my first triathlon of any distance. During the training process, a full year by the way, I met some truly inspiring and great people. One stood out however - a 60-year-old man who swam at the same pool I did. I never met someone so determined. His knees were scarred and battered beyond belief plus, if I am not mistaken, he had a chest scar that indicated he might have been a heart patient. But what a heart he had. He was always at the gym burning up treadmills, cycling, and swimming. I knew he was hurting, but he never gave up. When the weather got good enough to swim open water in the lake, I saw him there, easy to spot with his American flag swim cap & determined stroke.
Race day came and it was cold, windy with a good chop on the water. 2,000 athletes mulling around on the beach and I bump into Jim. Looking out on the water he said, “Man, I’m scared, I don’t think I can make it.”
I told him “You paid your dues and earned the right to stand on this beach with your fellow triathletes. Don’t let it get in your head. You can do it.
“But you’re a good swimmer,” he said. “So are you!” I replied.
He was nervous so I told him I would start with him and go with him until things settled and he got into t rhythm. The cannon went off and we got separated - I never saw him the rest of the day.
This is how Jim’s swim went: After the start, his first lap time indicated to race officials that he would never make the cut off. They actually stopped him as he came out of the water to run thru the timer and back in the water. He was asked point blank: “Do you really want to go back out?”
He did. He missed the cut-off and was taken to the medical tent right from the beach, if I remember. His day was done. But, he finished like the damn champ he is. The crowd, I am told, went nuts watching him go back out. They stayed to cheer him and others on.
They stayed until every last swimmer was out. Nothing new to Ironman followers, it’s a dedicated and enthusiastic bunch. Yeah, it is this kind of drama people glued to television just might miss out on. The sights, sounds … the whole visceral experience. Jim will be back guaranteed.
My father is a dedicated football fan who never really ever came to anything I ever did. He had never experienced something like the Ironman. It was very dark and cold when I crossed the finish line, but there my dad was pushing thru the crowd to greet me. He was very emotional when he heard the words, “Russell Dirks, YOU-ARE-AN-IRONMAN!”
Money quote:
Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."Read the full article here.
