The Journey Begins

Dear Scott Yoder, Congratulations! You are now registered for the 2018 Little Debbie IRONMAN Chattanooga presented by: McKee A Family Bakery - General Entry - Individual Entry - Volume. Please check the event's website for updates. "Holy crap, what did I just do?!" I exclaimed right after clicking the submit button. Well, it's official. After years of deliberation and wondering if it's possible, the time has come to stop thinking and start doing. Training has begun for the Ironman, considered one of the toughest endurance events on the planet; 2.4 mile swim, 116 mile bike, 26.2 mile run. Consecutively. Not sure what I've ever done in my life that makes me think this is a smart idea, but for the past 15 years since Mandy inspired me to run my first marathon, I have always wondered if I have what it takes to finish this race. Now I guess we'll find out. Three years ago I completed the Pigman Half Ironman. My goal was to finish that race with the confidence that I could tame the long course. While I did finish, I did not accomplish the goal. It took me 8 hours, 20 minutes, 48 seconds to complete when it should have taken me 6 hours or less. Long story short, I had kidney and liver failure, total body cramping, and ended up in the ER that night with IV fluids. At my follow up checkup 2 days later with my doctor, he said if he was on call in the ER that night he would have admitted me to the hospital that night based on my test results. There is some indicator of liver function in which normal is .6. Liver trauma occurs at a 1.2 reading. Mine was 2.75. Needless to say I retired from endurance events that night. Fast forward 3 years later. I apparently have a short memory. The voice in the back of my head is still whispering to me if I think I have what it takes to conquer the long course. Now it's time to answer the question. From most everything I have read about training for this race, the common theme is that you need a big "why" to do this. Because when you're 12 hours in, and everything in your mind and body is telling you to stop, you have to know your "why". So what's my "why". Great question. I'm not sure I have one main reason other than I want to see if I'm mentally and physically tough enough to do this. I also want to be an example to my kids. I want to show them, not just tell them, that if they set their mind to something that they can achieve things much greater than they think possible. I've sat at numerous youth sporting events watching parents yell at their kids to "go faster", "work harder", and "hustle" more times than I can count. And I can't help but wonder what they have done, or are doing, to demand this effort from their kids when I can't envision they ever did that themselves. I'm not saying that I am doing this to give myself the license to yell at my kids, but actually the opposite. I want to lead by example and show them how to put everything into something. I'm not sure these are big enough "whys", and who knows, maybe throughout this process I'll discover more reasons. I sure hope it's enough. So in the Yoder Years Blog, that has been admittedly too quiet over the past few years (been very busy, but even more reason to probably document things), I hope to document the journey. And that's what it will be, because this is going to be WAY too much work simply for one day in September. I hope to embrace the process. And in the end, I may fail miserably and go down in flames, but at least I can say I tried.