2012: Changing with the times

In the last two years, I've gotten the chance to do a lot of the things most people don't get the chance to do at my age.  I spent an entire year autocrossing and tracking my Miata, along with other people's cars.      And in that time, I've learned a lot about performance driving, cars, and race techniques.

However, with that experience comes the other side of the story - the cost.



There were 5-6 times this past year that my track car didn't run.  My other street car needed a new engine at one point, and keeping the track car alive for 2 months proved a bit more difficult than I expected.  So in reality, the cost wasn't just money - it was effort and time.  Its the nights you spend out in the heat under the car to make it to work the next day that really start making you second guess your hobby.  And when you are strapped for repair money on even the cheapest track car possible, you know you have to change something.

For now, I am going to have to take a break from it all.  I know I can always revisit it later on, and with more money it'll be a lot more fun.  So what will be replacing this past time?

I'll still be racing, just in a different form!  I'll be racing again with the human body as the engine.

 Three years ago my IT band gave out, debilitating me for almost a year, and keeping me off the bike all the way until January of this year.  But now its time for me to return to the world of bikes, and into the new world of running and swimming!

When I saw first the Kona Ironman Championships in 2009, I was sitting in bed from the IT band injury.  Previously I had biked everywhere, even to work - it was my transportation, and my wheels at the time.  The situation really makes you see what is important to you, and what you would do if you could get it back.  I told myself then that if I could walk or bike again, I want to make it to Kona and finish.

Sometimes it pays off to do a bit of homework before you make a goal like that.

Only an estimated 3.3% of Ironman capable triathletes ever make it, and that doesn't even include the sprint/olympic distance triathletes.  Data on what it takes to qualify and where is documented here.

Earlier this year around January, my IT band finally started allowing my knee to track correctly, and I returned to biking for the first time since 2009.   I did my first triathlon in March, and two subsequent duathlons the following months.  And with those out of the way now I must answer my own promise to get to Kona.

So now (semi-publicly)  is my official effort to make it to Kona - and on this blog you will see the process of me either succeeding or failing to get to it!

-D