The Bittersweet Half Ironman

My Mom, my Dad, and I right before the swim.

This past weekend, my Dad competed in the Steelhead Half Ironman in Benton Harbor, MI.  Needless to say this was a very bittersweet event for me to witness.

First off, I just want to say that my Dad is amazing.  He was awesome throughout the entire event, and ended up finishing 12th in his age group out of 80.  I am so proud of him, and couldn't be happier for him.  Now for the bitter part...I should've been in this event with him.

About a year ago, I started doing triathlons with the intent of doing this Half Ironman.  I had training schedules planned out, as well as other races leading up to it.  Unfortunately though, school got the better of me.  My final year of college was crazy busy and I had very little time to train.  Which ment by the time summer hit, it was simply too late to get into shape for this event.  I know that this is a "legitimate" excuse, but it is still an excuse nonetheless.  Although I had a great time cheering my dad on, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in myself for not participating as well.  I kept thinking things like "If only I would've gotten up earlier during the semester, I could've trained."  I understand that to most these thoughts seem irrational, I mean, who takes THREE Senior Capstone Projects, AND trains for an event like this? Me. I do.  This is what I do.  I work myself to the breaking point both physically and mentally to achieve what I want to achieve.  I do think that I made the right decision to only focus on school, but it's a decision I had to face the repercussions of head on this past weekend, and it was NOT easy.

My awesome Dad after finishing the Half Ironman.

BUT, life goes on.  There will be more races, and you better believe that I will be competing in them.  So what's next on the race schedule?  A few things.  First, on September 15th, I will be running in a nighttime 10K.  Then on October 23rd, I will be running the Rock 'n Roll St. Louis Half Marathon.  Then, I will be doing the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay in November.  I'm really excited to get back into racing.  After all, it's my motivation.  This time, I intend to train for them doing the Crossfit Endurance program.  I've got nothing to lose trying it out.  I've heard a lot of good things, and it will definitely make me a better athlete.

I know I will for sure be able to successfully train for the half marathon using this method, but I really want to push this program to the limit and see if I can train for next year's Steelhead doing CFE.  It is a very controversial thing within the running/triathlon community.  There are a lot of people who think that it is not possible to train for such an event without putting in countless hours.  However, there are also a lot of crossfit people who believe it's more about the quality of training as opposed to the quantity.

So, even though I may have disappointed myself a bit by not competing this past weekend, I think some good has come out of it.  I don't think I would've found out about the CFE program had I not fallen out of training for so long.  I am really excited to see how far I can push myself, and I look forward to exploring all that CFE has to offer.