Repeat after me

[andygates]

I do not want to do the Norseman.  I do not want to do the Norseman.  I do not want to do the Norseman.

It's not just an Ironman, it's an Ironman that starts on a ferry in a fjord and finishes with a marathon up a mountain.  The winners - winners, mind you - finished in 11:25 and 13:00 this year. 

I don't want to do it, but if I did, I could die happy.  Probably about halfway through the run.

Comments

[skean.livejournal.com]

See you both there in 2009 then? I'll bring the Swiss army knife, one of you has to bring the tea.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

You are not helping. Better bring enough chocolate for all of us!

I can't believe I'm writing this: Oly in the autumn (Bala, 5 weeks from now, goal 2:45), offseason of offseason stuff (weights, archery/bike biathlon, buggering around). Then in '08 an early Oly and half-marathon, leading to a late half-iron and full marathon and a big swim like Stert Island. All building to an 09 trip to the land of the midnight herring, and enough ring diacritics to keep us all håppy.

[skean.livejournal.com]

We're so screwed...

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Ooh, ball-shrinking terror. I haven't felt this since E dared me to my first half-sprint.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Hang on.

Not so long ago I distinctly recall you telling me that you had no interest in the long distance events. Which suited me fine, as I can't cope with the competition. It's bad enough with people I don't know. When it's people I know it just festers inside like an ugly boil. It was my plan to get out of sprint and Oly ASAP and move to middle distance, putting some safe distance between thee and me.

And now you've changed your mind again.

Dammit.

You know, this is entirely why I resisted the dares and double dares and ribbing about starting to compete in the first place. I really don't like what it does to me.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I enjoy these short ones. I don't know whether I'll enjoy or even be able to *do* the long stuff: Dunwich beasts me and a full marathon is genuinely scary. Bits fall off when I run long. But like I said to thud, it's the gold standard.

I'm not competing against anyone but my own preconceptions and the clock. That other people are also *participating* raises my game, not to beat them but to play along. Your light does not diminish mine; rather both brighten the room. Or some such crap. :)

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I know, I know.

I can't help it. It's genetic. I try to be all zen about it, but some biochemical aggressor hormones kick in and all I can think about is Vicky bloody Begg and how she bloody wins all the time and how come she and her cronies can't leave some of the minor races to us plebs so we can have a go at coming first for a change?

I think I'll enjoy the long ones. I'm getting the sense that I'm really not set up for these short explosive efforts. I'm the sort of person who goes at a steady pace that isn't particularly fast but isn't particularly slow, either, and I can maintain that pace for a bloody long time.

At least the cycling's like that and I think the swimming will be too, in the not too distant future. I do 1500m at the same pace I do 400. Can't go any faster but I can keep it up.

Don't know about the running. That scares me. But not as much as it used to.

Oh. Just got the all clear for weights. I'm now a fully inducted Olympic weightlifting type person who is technically good at performing those lifts. Yay!

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Yay for you on the weights! Sweet.