A triathlete with E missing from Elite

The Journey as corny as it is , is a task in management , logistics and juggling skills. Juggling everything from your time , people and life.

And here it can make and break relationships. People have actually left their partners because of their unrealistic life. That is chasing a goal that is not going to add much to human endeavour.

Here lies the conundrum .Why race an Ironman .Why race 2 or 3 or more.? No real reason is the simple conclusion and in a lots of ways I can't really justify the inordinate time I spend training with very little tangible improvement and certainly no likelihood of even coming close to challenging the serious age groupers. I am after all a triathlete with the" Ë " missing from ELITE. It is not a negative . It is the truth . But there is an innate  and unquenchable desire to keep going with the wishful hope that I can get better and I can have that "perfect "race.

For this I apologise to those around me who are indirectly dragged through the experience  . They are living it and its consequences day in day out.There lies the sad reality of the unfortunate life of an Iron wife .I have the sympathy of the comments of the blog entry of Matt Kurton in his latest blog entry ,The unfortunate life of an iron wife at 220 Triathlon .

A man who knows that he is, basically, a bit wrong. And who really has spent quite a bit of time getting ready for training, actually training and recovering from training over the course of 2012. Matt Kurton

 The only deluded  benefit / excuse  I can find is , the partner is happy and relieved  they are out doing something that is remotely healthy .(Well the jury is still out on that one as probably the level of training for the average triathlete training for an Ironman is possibly shaving a few cells from the Heart Muscle ) They are excited about something other than sex . Spouses get to travel to exotic places , well sometimes too exotic . Melbourne is fine for an Ironman ....there are lots of shops , my wife reminds me but a small island off the coast of Japan is really not the ideal holiday destination no matter what I say. Its a holiday from each other at the very least anyway .Absence makes the heart grow fonder I keep repeating.

Somethings are just unanswerable .Hence I heartily can only repeat Matt's words of contrite wisdom:

Because we’re sorry. We really are. And we’re grateful. We know we’re a nightmare. We know we’re obsessed. We know you put up with a lot. And we love you for it.

And if we don’t say it enough, well, don’t take it personally. It’s just that we’ve got a brick session to fit in, and it’s looking like it might rain.