The Ironman Project

I think that almost every person who I talked to for more than 5 minutes lately has heard me talking about my dream of becoming an ironman. Sometimes I wonder if people don't get tired or bored of me talking about this over and over again. I cannot help it though. Being a triathlete, and eventually an ironman, became a dream to be pursued, a passion that makes my heart beat faster.

But this passion about ironman is something quite new in my life. It all started in July, last year, when I was in Madrid for a summer school. In the interval of one of the courses I got a message from a friend, Thomas, saying that he was going to start training to complete an ironman in 1 year time. When I read the message I just thought: “it sounds like a really crazy idea”, but I also immediately realized that that crazy idea would probably start playing around in my mind as well. The thing is: I like crazy ideas, especially when they mean challenging myself and my limits. A crazy idea like that got me to walk 100km in less than 24 hours the year before, and another crazy idea like that got me to complete my first marathon 3 months earlier. So, deep inside I knew how tempting the ironman idea would become in my life.

It did not take really long until I decided to embrace the crazy idea; actually part of it. I decided that I would become an ironman, but by then – in order to play safe – I did not fix any deadline for my official debut in the triathlon/ironman world. I simply decided I would go for it and would accept all the challenges and commitments involving it. I knew that the way to get me to a start line of an ironman would be long and demanding. But the ironman dream was conceived inside me, and there was no turning back.

Since then I got really involved with the idea around ironman. I bought books and watched documentaries about it; I learned more about the history of this sport and the big names that paved the way for the current generation of triathletes; and I spent more than 8 hours in front of my computer watching the live coverage of the Ironman World Championship 2011 in Hawaii. Of course there is also some sweating and training going on as well: I have been trying to learn how to swim crawl properly and to improve my swimming condition; I cycle in the fitness center now and then – since I don't have a bike yet; and, of course, I keep on practicing the sport I love the most – running.

My ironman project has started! And I hope that with this blog I can share a bit of my steps towards the “still so far start line of my first ironman”.