Life as a Visual Storyteller—Episode 25—25th July, 2015: The Iron Cowboy Drives Me, My Daughter's Swimming Instructor Guides Me

I'm writing this sitting up in bed with a hangover from last night's party.

I need to get myself together. Some time today, I'm going to go for my first run in a week. It's an important one to me. Not because of the lay off. No. It's because, in my mind and in my spirit, I'll be running with James Lawrence, who is completing the final Ironman-distance triathlon of his 50-50-50 challenge today. Fifty Ironman distance triathlons on 50 consecutive days in 50 different US states. That's a 3.86 km swim, followed by a 180.25 km bicycle ride, finished off with a 42.2 km run. The run is the marathon distance, by the way.

Every day, for 50 days.

I've followed along for the past 45 days or so. I missed the start. Early on, I hoped he would be able to keep going. Then, around day 35, it became clear that he would do it. It was going to be incredibly hard (he was hurting badly by now), but he would do it. And today he will.

[Maybe—As I write this, I see on his website that today's swim in his home state of Utah almost did for him. C'mon James. One more bike ride. One more run.]

Listening to the stories of James and Rich Roll (on whose podcast I first heard about James) has made me want to do an Ironman triathlon in 2017. I'll be 49 then. That doesn't seem feasible. I'm middle-aged and fat. Still, if James and Rich can take up triathlons relatively late in life (though not as late as me), it must be possible. Arthur Gilbert was 64. Besides, take a look at the entrant ages for this event: Ultraman 2015. (Did you see those distances at the top right of the page? Holy...!).

I was chatting to Marc, my daughter's swimming instructor, earlier this week and told him I was thinking maybe of doing an Ironman in 2017, but maybe bringing it forward to 2016. His eyes laughed at me. It would be possible, he said, but I wouldn't reach the finish in any kind of proper state. That was enough to convince me to put the attempt back to 2017. Even then, Marc said I'll have to start my swimming training this coming September. That's between 18 and 24 months of swim training. Yikes.

I think Marc wants me to finish the triathlon in style, rather than see me crawl home.

Meanwhile, James has today's cycle ride and marathon run to complete. Every day, he's invited anyone who wants to to run 5km of his marathon with him after he's run about halfway. The group leg starts at 7pm local time. That'll be midnight here in Ireland. Instead, I'll run this evening around the time James sets off on his final marathon of the 50. In my mind, I'll be running with him.

What an incredible thing he'll have achieved.

I have another person to look up to.

#ic505050 #icinspired