Ironman

Yesterday I did an (official) 10 k route around a lake here in just under 1 hour... not too impressive, but it's an accomplishment for me. Now, if I could do over four of those in a rown, then get on a bicycle for 180km and swim for almost 4 km, I could participate in tomorrow's Ironman Triathlon.

I think the closest I'll ever get is having an ironman symbol on my wristwatch. To me it's pretty astounding that anyone can do that! "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life" is right! I found it interesting that the winner of this one only gets $5000... I think I'd want that for just finishing the race! Also amusing was on the athlete's checklist, it shows "food for bike." Yeah I know what they must mean, but it sounds hilarious.

Oh my god, I just discovered there are things like a deca-ironman, involving 38 km swimming, 1800 km bicycling, 420 km running. A woman named Astrid Benöhr did it in 187 hours of which about 8.5 hours were sleep (source: wikipedia). What kind of mutant do you have to be to do something like that?!