Ironman Wisconsin 2007 Starts Now

All day Sunday, from breakfast to midnight, I was keeping track of the 2006 Ironman Wisconsin race in Madison on the Ironman website. There were live video feeds, status updates, and an athlete tracker. It was a great way to grasp the size and duration of the event. The race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run and takes most athletes over 10 hours to finish. Participants must complete the swim under 2 hours and 20 minutes, 10 hours and 30 minutes to complete both the swim and bike sections, and they must cross the finish line within 17 hours. It was raining most of the day and the weather was cold. Out of 2439 participants who started this year, 2172 (~89%) finished. But 100% of them had the courage to try.

Since I was a kid, watching Ironman competitions on TV, I've always had an ambition to one day complete an Ironman. Today, my ambition is becoming a reality. At 11:00am, just 10 hours after Ironman Wisconsin 2006 finished, general registration for Ironman Wisconsin 2007 started online. Within minutes, I was officially registered for Ironman Wisconsin 2007. 3 hours later, general entries were sold out.

Training starts tomorrow morning and will continue on until 7:00am central time, September 9th, 2007 when I jump into lake Monona. I'm loving it already.