By Vince on 29/05/2007 12:07

'So Vince, I hear you’re an ironman, that’s pretty cool.'

Oh no, I’m thinking, here we go again. It’s another NTP (non tri pal) who’s been misinformed.

'Er…well no, actually I’m sort of half an ironman.'

‘What the hell does that mean?  Did you drop out?’

‘Nope, I’ve done a couple of half ironman races.  It’s…well…it’s only half.’

As this sentence yet again reluctantly slips between my lips, my shoulders slump as the standard response of  ‘oh, well that’s still pretty good I suppose.’ Grates like nails down a blackboard.

‘So how’s Leo?’ They quickly move on, seeing steam blast from my ears and nostrils.

‘Yeah he’s fine.’

So I decided in December that I had to get this ironmonkey off my back, I gotta do an ironman, this half stuff is great, but until I get the full one done it’s always gonna be...

‘oh yeah Vince... yeah I know him, he’s that half ironman guy.’

Ok so which one.  Well most of the European and American ones were pretty much booked...

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By Vince on 02/05/2007 07:22

Ashbourne Duathlon.

‘Let’s do the Ashbourne Duathlon, it’ll be a good sharpener for the Ironman’

‘But Duathlon is a bit rubbish, Stu.’

‘Yeah, I know, but I did it a couple of years ago and it’s a really hard course, loads of hills and the run  is pretty hard, so it’s worth it. Think of it like a good training session.’

‘Is it gnarly?’

‘yep’

‘Ok, I’m in.’

Don’t know if you all decide races like this, but racing can get dull if you pick the ones with easy peasy courses. Murky water followed by long flat loops of biking and running gets old real quick.

Have you noticed how triathletes start ramping up the excuses the closer it gets to a  race?

‘So, I haven’t like done any training since blah blah, because of this thing with my blah blah and actually the Doc says there’s no way I should even be like walking on it, but I’m just gonna give it a go and see’.

Of course Stu and I had our own similar banter as we struggled up the M1 for five and half hours on a Friday afternoon heading toward Ashbourne, the North.

...

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