I raced a full distance Ironman triathlon. Here’s what I learned.
It is September 14th, a date that has been marked in my agenda for quite some time now. It’s a beautiful day and the first rays of light are beginning to shine over the lake. My heart is pounding, caused by a combination of nerves and excitement. My watch reads 7:45 AM and I find myself waiting in the chilly water with hundreds of others. We are all about to embark on one of the most physically intense ventures of our lives. A full distance triathlon. Better known as the Ironman.
It is a race consisting of consecutively 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling, topping it off with a 42.2 km marathon. For many sport aficionados like myself, it is probably the pinnacle of endurance sports. A top item on a bucket-list.
However, to most sane people, it makes absolutely zero sense. Most of us pursue a good education, a nice job, and financial stability: all to secure comfort.
So why would anyone compete in an event that guarantees a significant amount of discomfort for, in my case, over twelve hours straight? And even pay to do so? Are you mad?!
And over the last six months, during long bike rides and runs, my mind often dwelled on these seemingly simple questions as well. Now, I think I have found some answers, and I’d like to share them. And maybe inspire one or two along the way.
1. Endurance training is an exploration of your personal why.
Depending on where I was, who asked, and how far I’d progressed in my training schedule, my answer to why I signed up varied. You would either hear a short, a mid-length, or a longer explanation.
In the first months of training, the simple answer was predominant: I have always loved doing sports. It is an integral part of my life, playing tennis from a young age onwards, and later falling in love with outdoor sports like cycling, hiking and surfing. Sport teaches me perseverance and resilience. Pushing through new boundaries and meeting new people along the way. So the triad of swimming, cycling and running was just another addition to the list of sports I already loved to do.
My mid-length answer resonated more on a sociological level. A challenge this big offers me a clear measurable goal, with a direct correlation between input and output. If you train hard, you’ll do well. If you don’t train, it’s not going to be fun. And seeing positive results on something you are training hard for is a wonderful experience. You will get faster, fitter, and see your body and mind become able to perform in ways previously deemed impossible. It is input in, output out, in its purest form. A refreshing simplicity that other aspects of my life, like my job, don’t always provide.
The lengthy explanation would be more on a philosophical level. I think it boils down to this: many things we do, have to do with building a sense of identity. Crafting a life’s narrative. We associate ourselves with certain things, and we try to validate those associations through our actions. For me, it’s no different. I like to live a life filled with experiences: exploring new places and people, taking on challenges, being outdoors as much as I can. Finishing an endurance race like an Ironman validates this self-image, these things I associate with my idea of ‘me’, and that validation gives me a positive feeling about myself.
For me, it has been a great exploration on discovering why I get out of my bed in the morning.
2. You will learn to deal with change.
During training and racing an Ironman, there are a lot of things that can potentially go wrong… and they will go wrong. In March this year, I tried to jump a fence. It didn’t really go as expected. I landed poorly and had a small fracture in my foot. As a result, I couldn’t really walk, let alone run, and only swam for the five weeks I was side-lined. I haven’t jumped any fences since..
In one of my longest bike training sessions, my derailleur snapped and completely destroyed my rear wheel. In another ride, I had to avoid a car that didn’t see me, and I (softly) crashed. One month out, I got a pretty nasty infection in my salivary gland. On the day of the race itself, I lost three of my energy bars after only five minutes on my bike. The examples are numerous, but the underlying message is the same: things will not always go as expected. Not in sports, not at work, not in life. The only thing we can do is to be prepared for change, and see it as something inevitable that we need to deal with anyway.
Another thing I came to believe is that we often overestimate the gravity and impact of change in our lives. In hindsight, events often don’t seem to be such a big deal as they were in that particular moment. At the moment of fracturing my foot, I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to me, but now I hardly remember it.
While realizing this process, it made me look differently at other parts of my life too, like turning vegetarian. For the last three years, I have been eating little meat since my girlfriend turned vegetarian. During that time, I’ve always given myself the argument that I was already contributing to a better world by eating less meat — so why would I stop completely? I didn’t want to miss out on bacon, on chicken wings, on barbecues. The good stuff. I also didn’t want to be a pain in the ass when I joined family and friends for meals. The step from eating less meat to no meat was a significant change in my mind. The reality (after a half year of being a vegetarian) of course turned out to be very different. It didn’t negatively affect my life at all — I simply overestimated the potential outcome of the change.
By the way, for those interested: I didn’t notice any difference in athletic performance moving away from meat protein. In fact: I believe a plant-based diet is a better source of nutrition.
3. You will learn the strength of the mind.
It is evident that a triathlon is a strenuous exercise on your body. But despite the required physical commitment, the mental side of it all is probably most important. During the race I’ve seen competitors, who you wouldn’t describe as your typical athlete, complete the full distance. With a big smile on their face. So for the greater part, I came to believe, it’s a mind game, from start to finish.
I know it sounds rather odd for such a physical sport, but let me try to explain. The mind game started from the moment I entered the water for the swimming part. As soon as the pistol fired, our group was racing for the first buoy — with the violence of salmon trying to make their way upstream. Many other competitors were touching and hitting me, as everyone is jockeying for position. Something I knew was bound to happen, but it still freaked me out a little. I decided to move to an outer lane, make some extra mileage, and avoiding most of the others. Once I could focus on the surroundings and my technique instead, I really enjoyed the majority of my swim.
After the swim, I got out of the water and quickly ran through the first transition. On to my favourite part: cycling. Like many in my generation, I try to meditate from time to time. A way to slow down in an increasingly fast world. Truth to be told, it doesn’t really do wonders for me. But I discovered that my way of meditation is cycling, as it clears my mind in ways I can’t really describe. Cycling allows me to give negative thoughts a place, providing space for fresh ideas. So while the 180 kilometres on a bike can feel long, I felt in full control during the whole ride. Yes, it was windy, and yes, it was lonely, but once I submerged myself in my safe mental zone — the bike ride felt rather effortless.
After more than seven hours of exertion, I arrived at the marathon. Six rounds of seven kilometres each. I’ll have to confess: I don’t enjoy running that much. To make matters worse: a couple kilometres in the run, my stomach churned. Insiders call it ‘gut-rot’, probably caused by an imbalance in carbohydrate intake. It resulted in me going to the mobile toilet every couple of kilometres. Fun times. But I knew the marathon run was going to hurt nevertheless, so I came to see my stomach issues as just another challenge. And luckily, every round I could see my girlfriend, friends, and family cheering for me. They all kept me going. At a certain point you surpass the physicality of it all, and let it boil down to one simple rule: simply don’t stop. And after more than twelve hours, the finish line was in sight.
If I had to run another 20 kilometres, I’m certain it would have been possible as well. A powerful mindset will get you there.
4. It is an exercise in doing things properly.
On a surface level, the triathlon sport doesn’t require that much brain power. But preparing for an event like this, you quickly figure out there is more than meets the eye. On short races, you can get away with poor training, the wrong kit and little knowledge of nutrition. You’ll manage. But competing in these kind of distances, you have to prepare properly. I am not a person to live by quotes, but this one stuck:
Practice weakens unfamiliarity but deliberate practice strengthens abilities.
To illustrate: I was rather experienced with cycling and running, and fairly familiar with swimming. But after 50 meters of freestyle swimming, I was usually dead tired. So I quickly realized I had to learn how to swim properly. I went back to swimming classes, every Tuesday night. Together with a group of adult men, all chasing similar dreams. At first, I struggled quite a bit with my form and breathing technique. But I stuck to it, reaching new goals every week. I went from 100 meters to 200 meters without stopping. The next month, from 200 meters to 500 meters. I moved from the safe environment of a swimming pool to the rather intimidating open water. I transformed my speedo into a full wetsuit. I learned how to navigate in the open water, while avoiding aggressive swans and geese as I infiltrated their territory. After half a year of practice, I could really swim.
Besides learning how to swim, it has taught me a lesson on a higher level: find out what it is that you really want to do, and stick to it for a while. Become better in it. Do it properly. You want to learn how to sing? Take singing classes. You want to write a book? Join a writer’s circle. You want to create furniture? Join a group teaching you how to build it. These days, so many of our hobbies and activities are short-term-based. The chase for instant gratification results in moving on as soon as we get familiarized. It’s not a bad thing in itself. I do it myself all the time. Some things are just worth doing properly, all the way.
5. You create an ecosystem of learning.
I’ve been doubting for quite some time whether I should document my learnings and start writing this blog. But as soon as I decided to start writing it, it ignited a whole research on people’s motivation. I got fascinated and obsessed by why people do what they do — in particular for endurance sports and mountaineering. I asked friends and colleagues about their motivations on why they participated in sports like cycling or running. I started watching interviews of athletes. I read a book on men’s search for meaning. And with all this information I started to create a better understanding of my own motivation — enabling me to write this post.
Curiously, this very same process happened training for the Ironman. When you first read about bikes, you start to understand the concept of aerodynamics. When you research buying a wetsuit, you need to know about buoyancy. When you figure out your nutrition, you learn the importance of glycogen. Before you know it, you’ve created this ecosystem of learning that I have always found both fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating, because you learn. Frustrating, because you get the false impression you are getting there in terms of required knowledge, and then you open a whole new box of information you need to consume. You realize that the chase for knowledge is never finished, and maybe that’s the beauty of it.
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So why did I pay to tire myself out for a full day? Because in ways little and large, physical and mental, it gives me the feeling that I’m improving the person who I am. I am happy and grateful I have experienced the Ironman. Big hugs to those around me always supporting me, you know who you are.
And to end with an answer to a question often asked: Nope, I don’t think it will be my last Ironman :)
