Beginner Triathlete - EPIC Race Reports articles

If you are calm while everyone around you is losing it, you probably don’t know what the hell is going on.

My First Half Ironman Experience-A Slow, Fat, Old Triathlete. Here is my story of my first, and probably only Half Ironman. I’m an almost 52 year old, VERY Athena triathlete.

Pain shows us how strong we are. After last weekend I am convinced of this. After 151 training hours of swimming, biking, and running, I flew to Sonoma County, California for the race.

I was in the moment, living a dream and on top of the whole world! Honestly, I wish everyone could experience that feeling because it truly cannot be described.

I thought of all the times I didn’t attempt something I wanted to do because I was too afraid of trying something new or of failing completely.

After eight long months of training, I’ve finally completed my first ever triathlon and it just so happened to be one of the biggest and toughest events known to the triathlon community, Ironman.

An age-grouper's journey of training for and completing his first Ironman

It is my opinion that even though everyone else considered her a triathlete, she did not consider herself one. I think she still felt like she had no fitness direction and had given up on triathlon.

I am not tough. I cried during the Lion King stampede, during Armageddon when Liv Tyler collapsed on the TV as her dad wished her farewell and, most embarrassingly, E.T.

A middle-of-the-pack triathlete takes on the iron distance for the first time at Rev3's inaugural full distance race

Thousands of spectators lined the shore and bridges overhead. When the announcer said, “Welcome to the best day of your life,” the possibility was still there for all of us.

I can't say it enough, the feeling of treading water for that final minute, helicopters over head, Mike Riley's Iron-voice over the P.A. - just awesome. I cannot believe I'm here!

My race report is different. My motivating factors go back seven years. I have lived in denial for seven years. Depression. I registered for Ironman Texas even though I felt like a complete failure.

I just had a couple of problems, I could count the number of triathlons I had contested at zero. Secondly, I could count on one hand the number of times I had been swimming in the last 17 years.

My lungs were burning and my legs were hurting but I had the biggest smile on my face as I ran on the red carpet and received my Ironman 70.3 medal.