Well, it has been exactly one week since I competed in my first Ironman. For those of you who may not have known, it also happened to be the 2009 Ford Ironman World Championships.

My journey began this spring when I was asked to participate in this race. I had only done one sprint triathlon in my life, so taking on the biggest triathlon race in the world wasn’t really something I had ever given much thought to. Once I decided to do it, I called my coach and asked him what he thought and he said that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that I needed to take a shot.

I began working closely with Jim Vance at TrainingBible.com. He came up with a solid training plan and I began working.
This summer I participated in several olympic distance tri’s which were 1 mile swim, 26 mile bike and 6 mile run. (distances vary from race to race) I also had to prove my fitness in order to participate in Kona by doing a half Ironman, or IM 70.3. I accomplished that in August and knew after that race that I had lots of work to do before getting to Kona. The time flew by and with the exception of a bike crash in September I had injury free training.

I got to Kona on Oct. 5 and immediately knew that this race was going to be like nothing I have ever done or how I had played it over and over in my mind. For starters, it was hot, the kind of hot where you sweat as soon as you go outside. I live in Seattle where a hot day is 80 with no humididty. The next thing I noticed was the wind, a wind you practically need to lean into in order to not get blown over.

Prior to the race I had to do a lot of press and various interviews. Looking back I am glad I had to do that because it gave me something else ot think about in the days leading up to the race. On Thursday, the 8th, I checked in to become an official race participant. I got a little band that I had to where the rest of the time that said “athlete”. I’m gonna be honest, that band created more strange looks than I could have anticipated. I am not your typical looking triathlete, in fact being around the athletes kind of made me feel like I should be back on the show. They were very lean and very fit. I am fit, but am working on getting leaner.

On Friday I did a short swim, bike, and run and then checked in my bike. I have walked red carpet events, and the scene at bike check-in was right up there with the amount of hype and photographers. I walked my bike to my spot and found out where I was stationed. It was the first time that the magnitude of what I was about to do began to set in. Believe it or not, I didn’t cry, but I kenw that I was going to at some point.

We went home and I got off my feet. I didn’t want to show it, but I was silently stressing out. I had spent months preparing for something that many spend years preparing for. I was scared. I honestly can’t remeber the last time I was scared to do something. I went to bed early that night and slept surprising well.

At 4:00 AM on October 10th I got up and got ready to pursue my goal of becoming an Ironman.

Check back tomorrow to find out what the day was like for me.

Biggest Loser, fitness, Ironman, Matt Hoover, triathlon

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009, 4:37 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.