Facts or Fancy

Although I am on the road to an Ironman, I am also on a road leading away from 2 other Ironman races. Both races had a thorough preparation period. Both races suffered similar malfunctions. So what went wrong? In Ironman 1 and Ironman 2 there is a disturbing parallel, that on one specific day, I made a training error, I put my body through too much, and basically broke my body down with just days remaining to Race Day. I did it in 2003, and then, in a horrifying repeat, the same thing happened in 2004. I'm going to explore each day separately and see how I can prevent the same thing happening again in 2005.

Before the Ironman journey even began, before I even embarked on the journey, I told a lie. Yes I did. I was in a bar and someone was talking about endurance events, and I felt I had something to contribute. I was quite drunk, but I ended up telling the guy next to me, Harmen, that I had already done an Ironman. I was trying to convey that I KNOW ENDURANCE, but to convey that quickly, I lied. I said, "Yeah, I've done an Ironman." I expected him to be impressed and I thought the conversation would move on, move back to what we were talking about. Instead he asked me about my times and obviously I had to suck them out of my thumb, and you know I am not a very good liar... I don't think he believed me, and I don't blame him, because I wasn't even sure what a credible marathon time was. That lie has haunted me ever since.

I can go back and say, well I did do a race in Vanderbijlpark that they called an Ironman, even though the cycle was 80km short...and I did do an Ultraman (3/4 Ironman) in Durban. But the fact is I haven't done an Ironman. I have reasoned, after telling that lie, that, "Well, soon it will be true."

This is proving a bit trickier than I expected. There is still a long road ahead to make fiction become fact.