September of 2104 saw my brother Andres complete an IRONMAN Triathlon. WHAT?!
Yes, IRONMAN is code-talk for a 3.86km swim, a 180Km bike, and a 42.2Km run. It boggles the mind why someone would do that. But Andres, for reasons unknown to those who are sane, completed this challenge and is now officially an Ironman.
It’s worth sharing part of the story from my point of view, because this story was remarkable – from when we heard Andres’s decision to a few days after the finish line.
To give some perspective, earlier this year I also completed a challenge: a half marathon (21.1Km. Once I finished a few things happened: (a) I kept thinking “who in their right mind would run twice this distance?!” (b) I injured myself and (c) started looking for the next challenge, perhaps a kid’s triathlon or run around the block?
Soon after my very tough half-marathon, I heard Andres had decided to signup for an Ironman.
The horror.
OK. To be fair, I didn’t train enough for my challenge and as a squash player, my muscles were trained for something else which contributed to the injury – and I don’t want to hear anything else about it! Nonetheless running my event helped frame my understanding of the Ironman. Basically, it’s crazy.
Then there’s Andres… He has always beens ports-oriented, but when he actually registered for this, I couldn’t help to join the rest of the people who know him to think, “that’s it, he lost his marbles.”
Why did we think that? Because before making this decision Andres had never ran a triathlon, nor a marathon, nor a half-marathon; and frankly, he wasn’t doing very well with his recurring “I need to lose 5 to 10 Kg” yearly resolution. So, making the decision to do an Ironman 8 months away with the only training being a weekly game of neighbourhood beer-league softball, well it’s just crazy.
But OK. We are a supportive bunch and we supported his decision. I mean, he had already signed up and paid the not-so-cheap entry fee, so we didn’t have an option.
Fast forward a few months…
Every time anyone asked about his training he would say things like “it’s coming great, I ran 30 minutes yesterday!” or “Oh man, I did 30 miles on the bike during the weekend and no problem” or “Ah, no, today I’m having a glass of wine, you can’t burn out before the event!” Obviously, everyone warned him he was underestimating what was ahead.
He would defend his ‘light’ training as the right way to go about it. In fact, you couldn’t suggest anything regarding training without starting a rant from his part, “that’s what amateurs do!” or “yeah, go and run 6 hours a day every day and see what happens!”. I assume that was, in some sense, his way of staying focused. All we could do was say “ok, good luck!” And we meant it. But hearing how he described his training, everyone was skeptical he would was preparing for it properly.
…I still think so.
It’s a good thing I didn’t make any bets because he completed the event – including a filmed victory jump and a few seconds in the official Ironman Race Day clip.
I guess we all need to shut up now.
Anyone who has siblings knows that relationships with brothers can be… complicated. And I love all my brothers, but during the many years living close and far from Andres he has had the particular ability to summon most emotions available to the human spirit, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Seems this time is no different. Thus, I go on record and say, I’m proud of you, Andres!
Here’s Iron-Andy in the official Race Day video
…
Andres is now proposing for us four brothers to gather in Miami to do the next Ironman together. That would be newsworthy. But I was hoping he would propose something that would not require a lifestyle change for a year.
Nice blog Jose, thanks for the link