Iron Jack

What an incredible weekend. Its hard to know where to start. Ironman 2010 in Taupo, New Zealand, was everything I thought it would be - and more.

It was exciting, exhilirating, nerve-wracking, exhausting and most of all, absolutely and utterly inspiring.

I think I’m still digesting the weekend and what it means for me, as I visualise lining up at the start line this time next year. I was completely excited about going to watch the event - but also completely petrified. I hoped it wouldn’t scare the living daylights out of me.

Well, most importantly, it hasn’t. If anything, I actually feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing. Comfortable and confident that if I do the hard hards, I will be crossing the line to hear the announcer say, Jacky James, you are an IRONMAN! I can visualise the steps in my mind and how most of it will come together. There is still a massive amount to learn about training, racing and this particular endurance event.

I’ll probably download some more later, but here are some highlights:

• Coach won his age-group! Wahoo! And he’s qualified for Kona! Double wahoo! Absolutely incredible to watch him race - I don’t think I had quite warned him enough about my passionate sports supporting, but he certainly couldn’t have missed my cheering!
• A number of RATs members crossing the line, but most heartwarming for me was Clarrie - an “older” competitor, determined to do his Ironman. We used to be in the same lane at swim squad and he is the dearest man. He had a great race, finishing in just over 14 hours. Awesome.
• Ripping around on bikes to catch all our people racing and making sure we didn’t miss a bit.
• Finding an amazing kebab shop for tea!
• And along with Coach’s efforts, the biggest highlight for me was my friend Stu from Kapiti Coast - we met through the Twitter triathlon network, we both work for the same Government organisation and we’re both working towards Ironman after battling demons - Stu this year and me next. I’ve followed his progress with growing excitement and respect. Even with all is training and busy family life, he still finds time to shoot me his latest inspirational thoughts. Eight months ago Stu couldn’t swim. Today, he is an IRONMAN! I met his wife for the first time at the swim exit - and saw him for the first time then as well! We followed his progress throughout the race, and I even rode out to near the run turnaround because I thought he might need some support on the last stretch. He had an incredible race, finishing just under 13 hours - 12h53m. Awesome.

And one final highlight…Mike wants to do an Ironman now too and is talking about 2012! Wahoo!

Tags: Ironman, Taupo

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Ironman, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.