I rode the St George course!!

Well I am still training for the St George Ironman. I have not signed up officially yet but pretty sure I will. I rode the St. George course Dec 5th. Clint was my vehicle support for the ride. We went down Friday night and had dinner and went to hotel. I got the bike and drink supply ready for the early morning ride! I woke up at 6:00 am and went out to grab something to eat and got the bike ready for ride. It was still dark so i had to wait till 7:15 am due to the sun wasn't quite bright enough. Outside temp was 22 degrees!! It was cold. I left hotel and ventured out on the course. Clint stayed in bed to give me an hour head start!! The course was tough but very interesting. I was out in the desert all by myself. It was very quiet except for my tires on the road. There was an very interesting beauty out there in the desert. I had thoughts of being mountain lion bait at times or chased by a stray Indian dog!! I had to ride through an Indian reservation.

Well at mile 25 Clint finally caught up with me and I was very happy to have him around me!!! Before Clint arrived I had a truck pull up along side of me and he rolled down his window and I had thoughts of being shot but he quietly told me to be careful out there all by myself!!! He seemed nice about it so I assumed he was just giving me a warning to be careful out there all by myself!!! He drove off without telling me why to be careful!! So of course I had thoughts of him parked up ahead waiting to shoot me or something!! Like I said I was very happy to see Clint!!

Clint took some videos of me riding some very tough climbs. The course was mostly hilly and tough!! Due to the cold my water bottles froze like a slushy- plus my feet were numb!! I rode about 42 miles of the course which was the hardest part of course. We got back to hotel to change into running shoes and go run part of the marathon course. Clint ran with me and we ran about 7 miles. The run course was uphill the first 3.5 miles and that made the legs hurt!! I was tired when we got back to hotel but very glad I checked the course out and pleased Clint was nice enough to support me and run with me!!!

IRONMAN!! Why??

I have given a lot of thought about the idea of blogging in regard to my triathlon and running events. I have often thought blogging is just a way of obtaining attention or accolades for what we or others do in life! We must all ask ourselves this question "what makes us DO the the things we DO?" In every aspect of life we have certain reasons for performing everything we do!! Often we are all pretty good at judging others why they do things but we have a hard time judging ourselves why we really do things. Sometimes its just easier to leave the "why" out and just do it and not worry why!! But I have found that finding the honest truth behind the "why" is much more difficult due to actually having to be honest with oneself and your motives!!

So Why am I doing the Ironman?? Do you really even care?? I know Why I am doing the Ironman and that is what matters!! I will be happy to take a few accolades along the way due to I am human and will have weak moments of my own motivation etc. I love the support of my family and friends and have the greatest respect for others that have taken this Ironman journey for whatever reasons why they did it!!!!

So I will shut-up and get on with this Ironman Training Journal!!! See how I switched it from a blog to a journal!! Journal=(A personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis; a diary). Thanks, Eric