The Road to the Ironman – Jim Ristow you are an IRONMAN

Can I describe my Ironman experience in one word? You bet I can! That word PERFECT!

How often does one in a lifetime get to experience perfection? From the weather, to my family (aka sherpa’s), to friends, to those who followed my online and to the most picture perfect finish one could ever hope for, I experienced perfection. If this whole experience has taught I come away with three things

1. Live in the moment
2. stop letting life pass you by.
3. Whether you believe in GOD, destiny, fate or whatever there is something pointing you in a direction, listen and pursue that path.

The days leading up to the big day:

I think I did a pretty good job chronicling the days leading up to the race, but if I had to recap I was calm. I remembered signing up last year and saying to myself enjoy this whole year. I knew I would never have another 1st Ironman and I did not know if I’d ever have a second chance at this. So the days leading up to the Ironman were not just the few days before, or even a week, a month or six months. The days leading up to the Ironman was the entire year. Up to the canon shooting off I was calm and ready to experience what I trained so hard for, I WAS GOING TO BE IRONMAN! I knew going in there would be people who put in more time and miles than I did, that is always going to happen, but unlike my training for past triathlons or even marathons I really believed I gave it all that I could. There were good and bad days along the way, but I finally came to conclusion or maybe finally figured out that last piece of the puzzle, which was STAYING IN THE MOMENT. I am by no means the same person coming out of this as I was once I started. In fact, the proof is in the pudding, people, friends, family all come to me as their inspiration and that has never happened to me before.

Highlights:

Swim – I can think of three

1. The first time swimming 4,500 yards in a pool which is almost 2.5 miles, once I did this I knew I could do the swim.
2. Having a chance to swim the course before the race proved to be priceless.
3. Swimming in Cancun. I got a good picture on how dedicated I was to doing the Ironman when I would wake up early and swim my 3,000 yards in the pool before most people had breakfast.

Bike – Also three

1. By far it was the first time I rode 100 miles (by myself). I rode the Ironman loop 2x plus a bit more on a sunny but cool morning back in June (I think).
2. Doing the second 100 miler out my front door in the heat of August.
3. Getting my bike properly fitted and buying the new rear cassette (gears on the back wheel) so it would make the hills a bit easier.

Run -

1. Becoming an outside runner. Up to late 2009 I had been an inside runner. Not that I dislike the treadmill it does provide some advantages but running outside is better.
2. My 22 mile run with Katie Nelson. Thanks Katie you will never know how much that day was a turning point in this whole Ironman experience.
3. Those two special runs, one was running next to the field of fire flies and the second was catching the double sunset, the real one and the one reflecting off the lake.
4. The “14-mile” run around Lake Monona. It came the day after a really bad bike ride that found me questioning if I would ever be an Ironman. I asked the front desk person at the hotel can one run around the lake and they said sure it was 14 miles. With map in hand I was off, the sunrise seeing the people set up the swimming area (see swim highlights), running thought the neighborhoods I simply lost track of time and found myself back at the hotel under 2 hours.

Other highlights -

1. Nutrition – Thanks to Ironman veteran Sue Moote in pointing me to Carbo-Pro and EFS. They worked really well not only in training, but they were a key part of race day.
2. Meeting and becoming a friend to an Ironman legend Bob Scott. How many times does one get to pick the brain of a 11 time Ironman finisher that just happens to be 80 years old.
3. The grey matter between the ears – Proved to be the biggest challenge n the whole Ironman journey. Learning to stay in the moment was the biggest take away in my whole training.
4. People – I met so many people in person and on line that made a huge difference in this past year. You made this journey bearable on the bad days and enjoyable on the good days. Even though I might have talked to much about this Ironman journey, you all seemed generally interested in the journey. My thanks may never be enough to repay you all for what you mean to me.

Well I think that is enough for now. I will split this up because it will simply be to long. I will follow this post up with a swimming recap, a biking recap, a running recap and a recap of a recap.

Thank you all for putting up with me during this time. I know I talked about this until you were blue in the face. I hope at sometime most of you can go through an experience like I just went through. Perhaps not an Ironman, but something that holds as much importance to you as the Ironman does for me.

Until next time Your Fitness Buddy and now an IRONMAN!

FINAL TOTALS:

Running Miles: 826.2

Number of Hours: 130:25

New shoes: 265.00 miles (for my record keeping)

Newest New shoes: 49.7 miles

Biking Miles: 1,955.00

Number of Hours: 116:05

Swimming Miles: 81.95 miles or 144,232 yards

Number of Hours: 36:00

Swimming laps (25 yard pool): 5,579 lengths or 2,790 laps

Weightlifting hours: 26:00

Stairs in Cancun: 1:05

1 pathetic game of volleyball: 1 hour

TOTAL HOURS – 321 hours and 50 minutes