Damn it, I'm sick

I picked something up sometime in the last week or so. On Thursday, when I managed to complete Day 7 of 10 days straight of running and Brick #3, my bike power was a little off, but I ran fine. I had a headache earlier in the day which I attributed to work, but turns out it was an early warning sign. My throat was slightly scratchy, too.

On Friday, I got up early to hit the pool, but something just didn't feel right. My throat was a little scratchier, I had the slightest dry cough, and I felt a bit tired, despite plenty of sleep. I put off going to the pool, and in retrospect, that was a good idea, because as the day wore on, I felt worse and worse. So I had to skip my run as well. I've learned that days off are good for me, and I'd rather nip this in the bud than have it develop into something worse.

Yesterday I felt like total crap, and managed to do a few things around the house in the morning before I was relegated to bed for the rest of the day. I felt weak, like someone was clamping down on my head, and I had a very slight temperature. My normal temperature is 97 or so, and it was up to 98.3. I could also feel some of my lymph glands on the left side of my neck. I just hoped things wouldn't get worse. So I rested, drank lots of fluids, and took some Alka Seltzer Cold Plus, but only a half dose at a time, to ease some of my symptoms.

Today I awoke feeling better, but just better than yesterday, still a bit worse than Friday. So I am not doing any training again. But I think I can make it to the grocery store and do a bit more around the house, as long as I won't be tiring myself out by running for 2 hours! Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I may do a 1:30 run just to get closer to back on track. Or not. We shall see.

Anyway, I've been reading some ongoing rants on Slowtwitch.com forum regarding Ironman, what it "means," whether the cutoff time should be shortened, and how the presence of fat and slower people doing it somehow diminishes the accomplishment of those who aren't.

Here are my thoughts: I no longer think Ironman is that big of a deal. When I did my first one, I could not possibly know how it would feel, no matter how much or how little training I had done. When I finished it, I was like, WTF??? Some people say they have a spiritual experience when they finish their first one. To me, it was just more hard work piled on a ton of hard work I did in the lead up to the race. A few weeks later, though, I suppose I was a little proud of myself, mostly for having made it that far and having been stupid enough to spend ALL DAY doing something like that. I only "made" the cutoff by 1 hour and 1 minute, so if the cutoff was, let's say 13 hours, I would have been declared DNF the very first time. Would I have even tried if there was a 13-hour cutoff? I don't know. My then coach told me it was too soon to be doing an Ironman anyway. I still haven't gone under 13 hours. But I'm still trying.

Since that time, I've had happy finishes, sad finishes and DNF's, and still each time I think that I must have a problem if I need to go through all that to feel good about myself. Well, I don't. I feel good about myself anyway. Ironman has just been a vehicle for me to exploit a certain level of fitness that I have been able to achieve over a period of many years. It could have been something different, but it happens to work for me. Doing Ironman doesn't make me better than anyone else. Hell, I'd be happy to just be a fast runner, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon! So it is just a label. I'd rather be known as "Sheila that really fit lady" than "Sheila that Ironman person." The example I try to set for others is fitness and health, not that you need to work out 13 hours a week to achieve it!

This does not mean that I don't think that I and others work extremely hard at training and all the other little things that go into making it to the start line, and then finishing the event, despite weather, mechanical issues, etc. It is just that I truly believe that Ironman is well within the reach of many people to do. I was kinda fat and well out of my league when I did my first one, but hey, I finished. Just because people choose not to do Ironman doesn't make it any more laudable a goal, than say, raising children or getting a Masters degree or PhD. I have not done any of those things, yet I look at people who have with tremendous respect. Some people choose to train as little as 6-8 hours a week and manage to complete an Ironman; some go 10-12, and some go way beyond in their quest for a goal time. I think the fact that the race has a 17-hour cutoff is what makes it so accessible. Because you CAN complete the thing on minimal training, and you CAN complete the thing without looking like the "typical" Ironman triathlete who is very lean. Been there, done that. I am still slow at Ironman. There, I said it!

I suppose for some of the really fast people this diminishes their "achievement." So be it. If you want to be in a sport where you absolutely HAVE to be thin and/or fast, try gymnastics. You won't see any fat people there. How about pole-vaulting? Same deal. Pretty tough to be good at it if you weigh 250 lbs. So why are there so many people upset that seemingly fat, out of shape and/or slow people can complete an Ironman (or a marathon, for that matter)? I don't know. Face it, it's just a hobby. It's a hobby that lets anyone in. There are no qualifications. Wasn't it Groucho Marx who said he didn't want to be a member of any club that wanted him in it?

Ironman isn't that hard. What makes it seem hard, I think, is that to be truly good at it (insert your own time definition here), you have to train your ass off, and most people with "normal" full-time jobs and families can't make 25+ hours in a week to do that. Some people get lucky by having the right parents or having started on all 3 sports when they were 5 years old and are able to get to the near-elite level with less training than that (or whatever the "real" number is that guarantees you to be super-fast), but most of us just don't have that much time. Or desire. So we get what we can get with the amount of time we can spend training, the parents we were given and the time we have or are willing to spend training. Maybe that gets you a 17-hour finish. Maybe that gets you to 11 hours. Maybe it does or doesn't get you a Kona slot. Great! Once I retire, do you think I want to spend 25 hours a week training for triathlon? Um...no. There are too many other things I'd like to do, so I don't think you'll see me training any more once I don't have a full-time job.

Now read what I just said and put it in the context of some other skill or achievement where to be REALLY good at it, it needs to be more or less like a full-time job. There are a ton of things in life that are like that! I can play the piano, but if I had ever dreamed of being a concert pianist, I would have needed the desire and commitment to practice for much more than the 30 minutes to an hour per day that I actually spent. But, unlike Ironman triathlon where all comers are welcome and have a fighting chance because of the 17-hour cutoff, I would be laughed out of an audition if I were to show up and play something now. But if I want to play for myself, hey, I can do that, and I can even play for my dad, who thinks I'm great.

So I think the deal with folks who are upset about fat and/or slow people doing Ironman is that they are upset that it's just a hobby. IT'S A HOBBY! Just because you finish an Ironman, you don't get some special professional designation like Dr. It's like a bunch of people who build model airplanes getting together at a convention or something. A bunch of people who enjoy doing the same thing. Only the airplane hobbyists probably don't try and set records for the length of their get togethers. But it is the same thing.

Ironman has become mainstream. They mentioned it on Grey's Anatomy (actually this week was the second time, I'm told). So if you are looking to be viewed as elite just because you do Ironman, I have news for you--there are plenty of us. There are much more difficult sports to do than Ironman that I can think of--double, triple, deca-Ironman races, 100-mile+ running races, multi-day adventure races, etc. There's always something harder to do than what you're doing now. Oh--go and quote how only point-oh-whatever percent of the population has completed an Ironman. Same is true for a lot of other things. If you're in the game for separateness, good for you.

So to me, Ironman isn't a way to separate myself from others. It's just a vehicle for physical fitness, and I may jump off the Ironman train next year. Do I want to do well at it? Of course. I work very hard in training and many times it isn't fun--it's just work. But I know that being fit and healthy is work, and so I keep doing it. But I could also do much less and still be very fit and healthy and that is a good thing, too.

If you feel special because you do Ironman, that's fine. Or because your eyes are 2 different colors. Or because you are (insert personal unique physical characteristic here). I am a pretty good badminton player. On a good day. With minimal training. Unfortunately, I don't have any participation medals or T-shirts that shout it out. Which is fine by me.