Those Who Inspire

A few days ago a regular email update arrived in my inbox from the Ocean Swim Series.  I've never done the Ocean Swim events (might have something to do with my earlier hatred of open water swimming), but they've always been something that I've thought I should probably do in the future.  Afterall, if I can do the ironman swim then what's a measly 3km ocean swim?

Anyway, I digress.  In the update was a plug for a blog by Geoff and his upcoming attempt to swim across Cook Strait.  He's 60 years old and, if successful, will become the oldest person to make the crossing.  He's only recently started blogging about the attempt and hopes to do the swim by the end of January (determined by tidal flows).

I have no aspirations to swim Cook Strait (although who knows, 10 years ago I would have told you I had no aspirations to run a marathon and I now have two under my belt and a third just 36 days away!).  Reading Geoff's blog, however, is really inspirational.  Here is a normal, everyday person, holding down a job, being active, setting out to do an extraordinary thing and it is that type of person that I really identify with.

My inspiration to do Ironman is the same.  While the Chrissie Wellingtons, Cameron Browns, Terenzo Bozzones, Jo Lawns, Gina Crawfords and Mirinda Carfraes of this world are all amazing Ironman athletes, and deserve our admiration and support, they are not the ones that have inspired me to do ironman and nor do I aspire to be like them.

When the going gets tough in my training (and it frequently does at the moment), I think about the normal, average, everyday people like me, gutsing it out and achieving what many would dismiss as too difficult, too long, or just downright insane.  In this very reflective entry to my blog, then, I'd like to pay tribute to those people who have inspired me along my journey.

Firstly, all there's the people in previous Ironman New Zealand (IMNZ) events who have made it onto the TV News each year as they come in just minutes before the 17 hour deadline.  I have watched those brief news bulletins, usually with tears in my eyes, as I share the emotion and joy of those finishers.  What a day they must have had, and an experience they will never forget.  They've refused to stop believing in themselves and fully deserve the bragging rights they worked so hard to earn.

Then came along Kerry.  I met him in 2004 at a conference and as talk got around to the various fitness activities we get involved with (I was running at the time), his colleague proudly informed me that Kerry had done ironman.  Wow.  Here was a "real" person, with a family and a full time job, that had actually done this event which had, in my mind, been a bit of an abstract television occurrence.  I had never had any personal connection to the event outside watching clips of it on TV and suddenly here was a normal everyday person who also happened to be an ironman.  Suddenly the event seemed more real and the seed of possibility was sown.

As the seed germinated, I met Charmayne.  Charmayne made contact through the GoTRIbal website, an international networking website for women doing triathlon, and we met up one day as she was passing through town on her way back from one of the multitude of womens' triathlon events she was taking part in up and down the country.  She convinced me to go to Taupo to watch the 2010 Ironman event and we met up there as well and talked all things ironman and, in particular, Taupo.  Charmayne had done a lot of short distance tris but was inspired to attempt ironman and was thinking that, before age got in her way, 2011 would be "the year".

By the time I got to Taupo I was pretty certain that I wanted to do ironman, but the weekend proved to be the clincher.  The atmosphere, the crowd, the volunteers, the commentators.  It was an amazing experience and as I heard the familiar refrain from Mike Reilly calling "(name).....YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!" to each person as they came down the finish chute, I knew that I wanted to be on the receiving end of that call in 2011.  (By the way, Mike's 100th time calling ironman races will be at IMNZ 2011.)

As I started training I did what I'm sure most ironman novices do and that is start trawling the web for fellow iron virgins with which to share the journey with.  There are plenty of websites around and I quickly amassed a number of (old) blogs to look at but nothing came up for Ironman New Zealand in 2011.  That was until I came across Ironjack, via the IMNZ page on Facebook.

Jacky (aka Ironjack) describes herself as "...a 35 year old, overweight, self-employed mother of two small boys...".  Her goal?  To complete NZ Ironman in 2011 and "...to prove that an ordinary, everyday, unfit, overweight working mother can complete Ironman and that you don’t have to be a professional, elite sportsperson.  Along the way, I hope to not only improve my own health and wellbeing and that of my family, but also to inspire other women and mothers like me to get out there and achieve something big."

As if that wasn't enough, Jacky had set up a website for Ironjack to raise awareness of and money for the Silver Ribbon Foundation (for gynaecological cancer research).

Raising two kids and training for a cause as well - she leaves me in the dust, but it was clear she was speaking my language and so I started following her updates, passing on the odd bit of encouragement and generally sharing in her journey.  As the weeks passed our friendship developed and her training updates on Facebook quickly became a source of inspiration and reflection.  How was Jacky's training comparing to mine?  Oh no, I have a saddle sore - how did Jacky deal with it?  Drat, she's had a bad day with the wind on the bike - how did I cope with the same situation that might help her?  And so on.

We haven't met in person yet (watch out when that happens, Taupo, during IM week!) but sharing our training triumphs and challenges as we edge closer to I-Day has definitely made the journey that much more manageable.

So as I'm struggling my way through the last few kilometres of a run, or battling into yet another Canterbury gale-force headwind, my mind visualises Kerry (a real person who's done this), Mike Reilly (yelling out "Toni ...  YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!), Charmayne (age really is no barrier) and Jacky (super iron-mum), as well as the thousands of people who have been there before and proven that a bit of extra effort really can turn the ordinary into extraordinary.