When we started our road to tris last February we started with some knowledge of what we were getting into. Could hardly run a 5K, got injured on our first 10K and couldn't even run for 8 weeks, that's how much in bad shape we were. Yes we looked perfectly healthy, eating well, one or two social beers every once in a while but not the crazy partiers but not much in shape. Put us in a pool and after 50 yds we were gasping for air, and probably the only thing we could do somewhat ok was riding the bike perhaps slow but we could.
Fast forward 8 months and we were at the start line of of first 70.3 in Austin, couldn't believe how much progress we had done and how much we had accomplished over those 8 months. We now were able to swim about 2500 yds in the pool without thinking we were drowning half way, we could ride about 60 miles without our butts or legs telling us that we had to stop somewhere and we could run about 10 miles on fresh legs. Back in October we accomplished to do all 3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile run and 13.1 mile run) in one day without quitting or giving up. About a week or two before our Austin 70.3 Ironman we got a craziness spurge and decided to sign up to complete what would become our first Iroman. Yes... A whole 140.6 miles of it!
Now we are a mere 2 days of stepping in the waters of Lake Woodlands in Texas to conclude one chapter of this journey that we started over a year ago, with our intro to tris and then with really took a turn when we decided to signup for Ironman Texas 2013. In December of last year we started the training for it. We were entering into the unknown, we knew that our bodies and minds were able to do at least half of it (good start) but really for us was exciting yet scary that we hadn't done any of the distances that our training was starting to call for, much less doing it all in one day.
We then started our new chapter and our journey continued. As mentioned on on of the last entries we have learned a lot on this journey. We have learned what our bodies are capable of now, where our minds can push the bodies but one thing that we have learned is how important is to have each other. I don't know how people do it on their own or how families can resist it. To those, my admiration to all of you. For us, this was taking our relationship as well to new levels, where we would sometimes run together, sometimes not, same with the bike and swims. I say take it to a new level because even though we don't compete with each other, we do try to push different levels and we start our trainings together a lot of times we were separated from each other. This was in part difficult because we knew we needed each other and we wanted to share it all together. On the other hand, it was good because it taught us to be independent, to trust each others abilities, and to make sure we were actually putting an individual effort on it. I think Res can attest to this. Probably was the hardest on her but I honestly think she is a lot stronger due to that. She now even changes her tubes on the bike on her own :). It also grew us stronger as a couple... An ironman couple to be :), we were pretty good at the team part, but now I think we are pretty awesome. While we had trainings that we are apart from each other, we have plenty of hours where we are next to each other, long hours on the trainer while watching tv at the wee hours in the morning, or during our long easy runs where we just went for a 2 or 3 hours jog around the neighborhood. That part is priceless!!! Getting to share that while actually accomplishing something.
Another aspect of our transformation is our social life... Yes it is to some extent inexistent if you ask our non-Tri friends, and also those same non-Tri friends are probably sick and tired of hearing us talk ironman. Hey... Sorry this is a journey and we are living it to the max, we don't have kids to share pics of them on Facebook, or don't party enough to share our drinking outings with friends, so might as well share our Tri experience. We may be crazy, but think we are better persons after this journey. We feel healthy, in our jobs we actually feel we are doing a better job... We are more organized and busier than ever, but I think this training and the fact that finding 20 extra hours a week to train after a 40 hour job is actually something that as doubting as it sounds it is possible so therefore our lives are more structured and as a result our productivities have increased, yes the engineer is talking :).
To those that have followed us on this journey, We want to thank you! Your few comments far in between but good thoughts and vibes have been received and definitely we appreciated them. To our families, thanks!!! It is something never attempted before in either one of our families and we know you all are proud of us. Your calls and support during these months, worrying if we were eating well, sleeping, being cautious on the roads and in the water, and also for putting up with us when we went home to visit and we had to train, luckily we were able to make it family times and we all enjoyed them.
For now, we hope you hear back from us after ironman, if you want to follow us, you can do it on the ironman website at www.ironman.com or if you have an iPhone you can download the IronMobile app and follow us with our bib numbers, and remember "anything is possible... The impossible just takes longer" Dan Brown.
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