IRONMAN..No Author

Found this while doing a search for "direct mailings for hotels" today....hahahahahaha


"... it is an event that seems to possess a personality. It is a a personality that is a reflection of your willingness to perservere. IM is something that signifies a projection of that which you perceive yourself being (or something you want to be). The strange thing is that it is a metamorphosis that you don't realize until later. It's not until it's completed that you feel complete. It's less about the finish line and more about the starting line. It's about trying...and everything in between.I think the real scope of IM is not the physical, geographical course... it's the journey to the course. Preparation is the true test of an IM. Knowing the elevation changes, knowing the water temp, knowing the air temperatures and wind speeds.... are all good things to know. But, believe me when I say, " knowing the course won't amount to a hill of beans when you're 200 yds. from the finish line " . Or, when you can see the transition area and the cut off time for the bike leg is less than a minute away. So, you bust a gut to make it through... only to suffer through the run (if you're lucky?).The way I see it, IM is not a place. It's not a course. It is miles of cumulative small successes defined in one event. It's an adventure in self motivation, preparation, and completion. In the end, it's about sharing losses and sharing the many victories along the way that few truely understand. It is about overcoming your own limitations. When it's over... it's about being an ordinary person who found a reason to become extraordinary for only one brief moment in time.So, you can train for an ironman... you can find out all the idiosyncracies about what ever course you choose... you can learn the details about IM race preperation and all the tid bits...you can learn the lay out of the land (so to speak). But, the real surprise will come when you actually look back and say 'dang, I did what?'. That answer may be clothed in failure or success. But, it really doesn't matter. Because you really didn't know the course... nope, you did more than that. You loved it and hated it...lived and suffered with it.That being said,... what's a good IM course? ...The answer is...ANY of them you try and any that you don't. But rest assured, none will be easy. And, in the big scheme of things, the first IM is about doing - the rest is just details that seem to take the naiveness out of your first attempt. Details that seem understandably important at first... only become less and less significant as you begin this crazy thing called Ironman.Ironmans are something you can study for... but, you can not pull an all nighter and succeed."