New Countdown: 52 Weeks to IronHubby

Yep, he did it. For years, he's been Mr. "I'll Never Do an Ironman" (sometimes I think about how wise he is, how sane). But all that changed in a tent in Tempe Arizona today. Last night we volunteered here at the 2012 Ironman Arizona, and he got to see first-hand the zombie-walkers of the evening marathon slog. That, coupled with supporting me through two Ironmans means he absolutely knows what he's getting into.

Well, almost.

No one ever really knows what they're getting into when they sign up for their first Ironman. They may think they do, but they don't. So from here on out, I'll let him tell the story in his own words. Once a week, I'm going to have him do a guest post as he counts down to his first Ironman. He's done one Sprint (10 years ago) and one Olympic (3 years ago) triathlon in his life, so he's really quite new to this sport. His perspective will be totally different than mine in what he brings to the Ironman. However, he's quite a good all-around athlete with great strength and endurance, so I have confidence that he'll do just fine.

So here, in all of his tri-newbie glory, are my husbands first words as he prepares for his 52- week Ironman Countdown:

"What the Heck Have I Done?" (Robin's Note: I'm paraphrasing here, to keep my G rating)

"The journey begins.  I'm excited for the challenges ahead. The combination of turning 50 and taking on this kind of challenge in my life is going to take some extreme commitment. The reason I'm so excited is that I've done much of this stuff on its own. I've swam 2 miles, I've biked 100 miles, and I've run a marathon. But I've never put all three of those things together in one day. I want to see what I can accomplish.

The biggest difficulty for me is going to be training alone. I'm such a social person, and I love to exercise in groups - mountain biking with my friends or swimming with the Masters. Robin is such a loner-type, it's fine for her to go out on her own for a 6-hour bike ride, but for me it's going to be extremely challenging to do some of this training just out there by myself.

Also, I'm the kind of athlete who can train minimally and finish a race. I got by doing a marathon with only one 14 mile run. It sucked, but I could finish it. You can't cheat the Ironman. I absolutely have to put in the training time. The reason that I really want to do this is that for one year of my life I will really have to work hard, juggling my training time, my work, and family."