A Very Special Crackheaded Announcement

Those of you who are friends on Facebook have seen me alluding to something today that I promised I would unveil here on the blog first.

I almost don't even know how to talk about it. It came to me in the middle of last night. I had been struggling with do I or do I not do IM Canada? It's not the "doing" of it that's an issue--it's the travel and I hadn't made any plans, and as much as I know I could go back there and kick the course's ass, I just haven't felt the need to end this season with another WTC/NAS (or whatever the fuck it is now) Ironman (I am already doing IMLP). It would have, indeed, been fun to meet some people face to face that I've never met before, fun to do the race, all that stuff.

But my heart, while still broken, has needed something else to revive me, to make me feel alive and challenged and maybe lead me to that next step. I'm signed up for a 50-mile trail race in October, I'm going back to Goofy Challenge (which is no big deal to me) in January, and I had thought about doing a "double Ironman" training week in 2010. I had also talked about a sequence of triathlons with an impressive total distance sometime earlier this year with someone, but it was expressed in terms of "next year." Well, you know what? I'm training pretty well, I'll have IMLP as a warmup race (and I do intend to race that) and being undecided about IM Canada, last night I thought what the fuck let's do this thing THIS YEAR.

So initially the thought was 4 days (and these are all "do it on my own" fuck actual races I don't need no stinkin' medals or T-shirts):

• Day 1: Sprint
• Day 2: Olympic distance
• Day 3: Half Ironman distance
• Day 4: Ironman distance

But then I add up some numbers and think, huh, that's close to double Ironman but not quite. So while stuck in traffic this afternoon (only to return to a house with no power, but obviously it's back on, thank GOD because it's still 91 here), I figure out how it's going to go. This will begin on August 24, 2009:

• Monday, August 24: Run 3.8 miles or so. This is just to get the total run miles for the week up to 52.4, which is double Ironman.
• Tuesday, August 25: Rest day
• Wednesday, August 26: Sprint (sort of) of 1500m swim/20-mile bike/5K run
• Thursday, August 27: Olympic (sort of) of 2000m swim/30-mile bike/10K run
• Friday, August 28: Half Ironman (sort of) of 2500m swim/60-mile bike/13.1 mile run
• Saturday, August 29: Ironman (sort of) of 4000m swim/115-mile bike/26.2 mile run

And the total is 10,000m swimming, 225 miles biking and 52.4 miles running.

Can I do it? Well, I've done the whole sprint/Oly/Half Ironman before. No big deal. Part of Triple T. It's that pesky Ironman thing at the end that will be tough. So I will be leaning on some friends for advice--I think I know how to pace this, and I have to find places to get it done. I'm OK swimming in the outdoor 50m pool, and riding from there. I think I will need to do the half and full IM runs on trail, though, which will necessitate some transportation or something.

I have time to figure out the logistics!

Am I going to ask if anyone wants to come along with me? FUCK NO! I am assuming I will be doing this all by myself. If once I post where the hell I will be while rolling someone wants to show up and swim/ride/run along with me or just clap or look at me like I'm fucking insane, that's perfectly fine by me.

Even though I won't be doing sanctioned races, I am hoping that if I decide to submit an application for Ultraman Kona, that they will consider me appropriately loony but qualified to race there. That has been one of my goals for several years now, and it's time to start making good on it, eh?

Now this all begs the question WHY??? Why is because I think I can do it, but it's also somewhat scary, because this is how I feed my soul, because this is how I exorcise demons that seem to plague me only leaving me when I push myself to another place, and because once I lock in on something that I think I should do, I'm already doing it.

I've had enough of doing it for the prize, the glory, frankly I don't give a shit what anyone thinks of me anymore.

I might fail at this; but I might not. All I can do is tri, right?