Tricked, Fooled, Conned ... A Sports Story

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I got tricked into running a marathon?


Yes, that is right; I was fooled into completeing 26.4 miles of self-inflicted physical and mental abuse.


I am pretty sure I have mentioned I ran the Dubai Marathon in January, but what I failed to explain was how this feat ended up being added to my list of "Life Achievements". (And yes, I have contemplated puting my marathon victory on my resume under "skills", haha)


Clearly, I got tricked into this because no one in their right mind decides to train for a marathon only 13 weeks before it (with Christmas & New Years falling square in the middle), in the HOT Middle Eastern desert, in a city that only has 2 safe places to run long distances.  But alas, I am a sucker and a fool.

It all started with an e-mail suggesting that it would be fun to go over to Dubai for a weekend getaway and while we were there run the 10K race that was being held in conjuction to the marathon.  Somehow this fun suggestion snowballed into a "who is the bigger idiot man" competition where 20 of my coworkers (including the fiance' and myself) were peer-pressured into running the marathon.  We even paid 80 USD for the awesome pleasure of torturing ourselves.

To be honest, the idea of running and training for a marathon did not seem *too bad* when supposedly 20 other people would be there to support you through the duration of training and during the actual race.  However, as the weeks went by more and more people hung up their running shoes.  By the time race day came only 4 (myself and the fiance' included) of us actually made it to the starting line and only 3 crossed the finish. 

And let me tell you...running a marathon is no joke.  I mean you hear the word marathon and you think "yeah, that sounds tough," but really you have NO IDEA until you actually run one.  Of course, I was completely fooled & under prepared.  I ran the first half of the marathon in 2 hours (a decent pace) and was having a good time.  It felt pretty good and I was enjoying seeing Dubai for the first time.  The problem is, in my limited amount of training, I never ran more than half a marathon distance. BIG MISTAKE.  I had no flipping clue what I was up against because the second half of the marathon was not only hard, but it was HOT (we are talking nearly 100 degrees).  So hot that I was pouring an entire bottle of water over myself at every 1.5 mile water station.  And the last 6 miles were BRUTAL.  I was on the verge of emotional hysteria by the time I reached the finish; bursting into full on tears as I crossed because I seriously did not think I was going to make it.  Afterwards I vowed that I would NEVER run another marathon again.  Been.There.Done.That.

Here I am in all my marathoning glory (totally beating the cr*p out of that fit looking dude)

But here is the awful truth: the further I get away from the experience, the more I find myself contemplating attempting another one or maybe something more....  I keep thinking, "I could have run that faster" or "I can do it without crying".  And there I go now fooling myself into more physical punishment.  Which, the point to my story being I have now been CONNED, yes, conned into completing a HALF IRONMAN.

WTF, KP!?!?

I know guys! I know.  But it's not my fault!  I swear. (ok, maybe a little bit my fault)  So basically, after recovering from the marathon I have been thinking all sorts of crazy things.  For some reason I now believe I am part super-human, perhaps?  I don't know.  But what I do know is that I have this super cool cycling friend (who the fiance' picked up for me one night - that is another story though) M from Australia who is super awesome and also a triathlete and she convinced me that I can be one too.  I currently cycle between 50-80 miles a week (if not more), I have got the running thing down (thank you marathon)and I used to swim competitively in High School - so I figured I could definitely do a Sprint triathlon (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run) or with a bit training an Olympic triathlon (1.5 km swim, 40 km ride, 10 km run) no sweat.  But she flipping signed me up for a Half Ironman (1.9 km swim, 90 km ride, 21.1 km run aka The Long Course)! See?? I totally got conned!

So here I go again - signing up for more self inflicted physical and mental abuse.  Seriously, I should probably get my head checked.