Stirring My Heart?

As I mentioned last evening, I feel strongly that God implanted so much more talent, skills, and drive into my heart then what I am currently living out.  Wondering what that was and just trusting that He would show me when I was ready.  Well... I was walking into work this morning and the word Iron Man popped into my head.  Thinking, "God, are you for real?"  I have always looked at a friend of a friend who I'd say is of average athletic ability who has completed an Iron Man Triathlon and thought "Gosh I'd love to do that!"  But shit son, 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2-mile (42.2 km) run, raced in that order and without a break sounds impossible.  Most Iron Man events have a strict time limit of 17 hours to complete the race.  The Iron Man race starts at 7:00 AM, the mandatory swim cut off for the 2.4-mile (3.9 km) swim is 2 hours 20 minutes, the bike cut off time is 5:30 PM, and all finishers must complete their marathon by midnight.  Hmmm... I REALLY would love to do it just once.  However, I wasn't the hugest fan of a marathon there ever was.  Could I really do another marathon IN ADDITION to all that other stuff?  And I'd have to get a road bike as the trusty hybrid isn't going to cut it.  Hmmm... it's something to think about.  I also know though that if it's in God's plan, it's in His power and He won't let it go from my heart.  I can already see my sweet tattoo of my little red Iron Man on my thigh, right under my 26.2... shit this desire isn't gonna go away until I do it, huh?

I figure I need to stay on my current plan and I will be at my goal weight in roughly 4 months.  I am thinking that I'd like to start training for an Olympic triathlon come May 1st, which would be 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) swim, 40 kilometres (25 mi) bike, and a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) run.  I have done a couple sprint triathlons, so I think an Olympic is the next logical step.  Which...of course as one would have it...the Lakeville Triathlon is August 19, 2013...olympic distance and all.  Hate it when plans I'd like to avoid line up like the stars.  :P  We'll see how it plays out...but I know I'm pretty committed to the point of the Olympic tri.  We'll see where I stand on my desire to do an Iron Man after that.  However... those Iron Man's... they're in some pretty nice places...Cozumel, Lake Tahoe, France, Brazil, Los Cabos...that's a fairly large incentive.  I've always said I wanted to take a tropical vacation (yes, I have truly never been outside the US on vacation).  What better way to justify a Cabos vacation then 140.6 miles of athletic torture.  ;)

I'm excited.  I have always LOVED racing, not for speed, cause dayum I'm slow, but to push my body to see what it can do.  I'm ready to start pushing again.