A couple of years ago, shortly after I passed the big "four oh", my younger sister shared a really inspiring short film on Facebook about Team Hoyt (not that I knew their names then).
My sister is a real energy bunny, always up for new challeges and said she'd love to do an Ironman one day. I looked into it, completely misunderstood what it all meant (I thought you completed it over a year, not 17 hours!) and said that I'd love to do it too.
So that was in early(ish) 2013. In April of that year, I joined a free running club and began a 5km run every Monday night. It took nearly two months before I could run the whole route and my average time was 33 minutes (and I was totally exhausted at the end of it). I carried on with this weekly run and then in around August 2013 I finally started going to the gym I'd been a member of for years, and started swimming a bit.
In June 2014, I did my first and (to date) only triathlon, in Hyde Park. I hated it. The bike ride was fine, the run was fine but I was terrified doing the swim. In fact, I cried nearly the entire swim and kept having to empty my goggles!
That was pretty much the end of my gentle dalliance with genuine fitness.
Since then, I've quit the gym, restarted smoking, drink far too much and my exercise is limited to trying to get 10,000 steps each day on my fitbit and one 5km run every Monday night although I'm now down to 27 minutes for the 5km.
So.... Sister booked into the half ironman and yesterday I decided I would too.
The second I clicked confirm, with a massive £243 leaving my bank account, I felt physically sick. This isn't a little sprint triathlon that I can do without any effort. This is time for a serious lifestyle change. I could be disqualified before I even finish the hated swim for being too slow....
For the first time in my life, I think I might have bitten off a lot, lot more than I can chew.
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