There comes a time in one's life where a change of direction is in order. Sure, sticking to what is comfortable and familiar would be the less stressful way to go but a little stress and chaos is a good thing, right? Or maybe it is just a good thing for me? Regardless, I am going for it and here is why!
After finishing 9 Ironmans it starts to become your identity. People who know me refer to me as "the girl who does Ironmans." I have no problem with this title, in fact, after my first couple finishes I really bathed in the lime light which, if you have done an Ironman, you are entitled to, trust me! I would also get the question, "how long are you going to do this?", to which I would respond something like, "until this horse dies", or " until I don't love it anymore". So the big question is, the horse is not dead, and I still love it so why would I take the year "off"?
There are several answers to this question... "Ironman is becoming to commercialized, I am sick of biking so much, Perpetuem sucks, my wetsuit has given me a rash 1 to many times"; but the major reason that I am changing teams this year is that I have found another love, The Ultramarathon! You see, if we compare the Ironman and the Ultramarathon to men, Ironman would be the high maintenance man with expensive taste driving the sports car, and our Ultramarathon man would be the slightly scruffy guy in a t-shirt driving the pick-up truck or maybe... the 1998 Subaru Outback?! Ironman is full of frills and glamor and the Ultramarathon usually consists of about 50 to 200 people tromping around in the woods all day long finishing to a backyard barbecue in a park shelter. It took me 6 years to realize that I need to hang out in the woods for a while.
So changing directions is a good thing but it is really scary! I admit, my internal GPS is screaming "re-calculating" in that annoying British accent, and I am doing my very best to ignore her! Her battery will wear out eventually...
100 miles, here I come!
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