Becoming an Ironman part 1

Katie Weber from Minneapolis Minnesota, way to go, you are an IRONMAN!" Those are the words out of Mike Reillys (aka the voice of Ironman) mouth that I have worked for a year to hear! And after a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run, it was my turn to cross the finish line earning the title of Ironman!

My triathlon career started 4 years ago. I was working at TGI Fridays in St. Louis Park MN. I had been working out for my general health for many months by that point and I will admit I was a good deal thinner and appeared more muscular then. (However I didn't have much for endurance and that matters more!) One of my good friends that I always looked forward to working with on Sunday nights wasn't there one week. The next time I saw him I asked him where he had been, he told me that he had been in a team triathlon (one person swims, another bikes and still another runs (this is not an option at an Ironman)). I thought it sounded so cool! I knew what a triathlon was, I had seen the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon on TV about a year prior to this and had seen the Ironman logo on merchandise such as running socks from the time I was a teenager. (I did actually have the Ironman socks by the way...kind of wish I still had that pair!) So anyway my friend Jose told me all about the triathlon he had done and told me I should do one. I have always loved biking and running and knew how to swim, so I thought, why not! So I signed up for the sprint distance triathlon at Square Lake park in Stillwater MN. I spent a lot of time working on my swimming, I mean you can die on that part of the race if you are not good at swimming so I made sure I could swim well enough to not drown! I rode my bike everywhere I could. My coworkers at the time must remember all the days I can into work drenched in sweat on the hotter days I biked to work! I ran an average amount for me! Then the 'big day' was finally here. I woke up at 4 in the morning drove to Stillwater and waited for the race to begin!

They lined us up at the water by age group. I was ready to go, however I had developed a small cough the week of the race and sadly it hadn't subsided by the day of the race. I can remember being in the water and coughing and just telling myself 'put your face in the water and swim!" That is what I did! The swim felt like it took forever, but soon enough I was out of the water and heading to T1 to get my bike. At the time all I had was a mountain bike...you can always tell the newbies by their bike!;) 18 miles later I was on the run and while I had heard about brick workouts (going from one discipline to the other) I had never really gotten off the bike and went directly to running! My legs felt like jello for the first half mile of the run. It was insane! Before I know it I was closing in on the finish line. Crossing that first triathlon finish line was such a great feeling I was instantly addicted to triathlon. My first thoughts as I crossed that finish line was "that was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again".

In the process of preparing for my first tri I learned exactly what an Ironman was. I thought it sounded like the stupidest, craziest thing a person could ever want to do, but little did I know, the seed was already planted! Like it or not, before I had even swam, biked or run one training mile for that first triathlon, I was destined to do an Ironman!