I just read this article on the Top 10 Competitions You'd Have to Be Crazy to Compete In. While I am not training for the Ironman World Championship in Kona (#4 on the list) and I won't finish in under 9 hours like the world's best athletes, I hope to still be able to say on 8/2/09: "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life."
Excerpt from www.realclearsports.com:
So, you’ve run a marathon? Trained for months and pushed your body to limits you never dreamed imaginable and finished the 26.2 miles? Big deal. Sure, running a marathon is a challenge, but it’s merely a jog in the park when you compare it to some of the events on our Top 10 Competitions You’d Have to Be Crazy to Compete In.
Think you’re tough? Try it after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles. Still feeling macho? Run 100km (62.12 miles) – in Antarctica. Clinging onto that last bit of pride? Take a sled and 16 of your fastest dogs for a 1,100 mile sled dog race through the middle of Alaska’s winter.
Amazingly, none of those examples are exaggerated, for they need no embellishment. The Ironman World Championship is a triathlon so intense the human body has been known to completely shut down in the middle of the race, begging for the pain to stop. The Antarctic 100k Ultra Race takes competitors through sub-zero temperatures in one of the world’s driest and windiest places. And the Iditarod, which begins this Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska, boasts windchills that are often well below freezing, whiteout conditions and 14-hours of darkness.
These are simply, and horrifyingly, the World’s Competitions You’d Have to Be Crazy to Compete In.
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2 comments:
Holy crap!!!! My half-marathon is feeling kind of wimpy right now! You will be able to brag the rest of your life - are you going to get an ironman tatoo?
Many of my teammates have Ironman tattoos, but I don't think that I'd want to get one for myself. And, when you get a tattoo, you're not allowed to donate blood for a year. There's already a shortage of blood donors. I wouldn't want to dwindle the supply.
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