IronMan : What's The Big Deal?

I read Olivia's blog and apparently, even when her blog (she says) was filled with swearing words and all, she was rated a G ( as in the rating :General, suitable for all)

So, when i decided to try the same,thinking i will be rated same as her as well, i got a surprise when i was rated PG (Parental Guidance)!


PG???

The rationale was because the rating system based it on some key words they found in my blog.


huh???

Apparently Pain, Dead and Hell are not as forgiving than say, F*ck, Shit or anything other 4 letter words (which i'm sure did appear in this blog, Shit for example) that maybe should be rated as R, or even X.

And the 3 keywords above (Pain, Dead and Hell) were often used by me to describe the training, the races, the insanity of the sports (Triathlon, Adventure races, Rugby, Duathlons).

So, what's the big-a-deal with IronMan?

Wait, before you even answer that, think about the up coming Singapore's 70.3 (that's half IronMan) has their big major advert campaign, which seems like a big deal.

By the way, we in Malaysia also got our own unofficial 70.3 race. As you see, to use the word IronMan would require someone to pay royalty to the franchise holder (ie IronMan, duh!), which explain why it's so expensive to even enter (we in Malaysia is luckier as we get discount to enter the race in Langkawi), so, Mr Chan, the Man behind Triathlon scene in Malaysia, has been organising Desaru Long Distance Triathlon, a 2km Swim, 90km bike and 21km Run, and if i may say so, is 100meters more swim compared to the 70.3miles, to be exact, 70.625 miles (can't help it la, got to be Kiasu also). But what's the big deal? We triatheltes are bonded by the same aim.

That is, to put our body through the most gruelling challenge. (ok, there are those that goes to races to show off their gears, but that is anohter story, for anohter day)

So, can i say that IronMan (140.6, which refers to the miles covered in the whole race), is double the deal?

Apart from someone that don't understand why i choose to torture myself to go through the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run back to back, lets take a few minutes to reflect that there are thousands out there which has completed this race at least once.

Doing it once is crazy, a few times maybe insane, every year without fail? Masochist ?

Contarary to popular beliefs, you don't need to have a muscular body, nor do you need to be perfectly normal, to do IronMan.



I've written about this here, Bacin has also written about it here. Please, do see the videos, i have goose bumps just seeing them.

I guessed races like these are akin to exams. When you sat for your SRP (Sijil Rendah Pelajaran), that was the biggest exam you will ever sit. But once that was over and SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) is infront of you, you fret out. Then, after you're done with SPM, you don't view SRP to be as hard as it was anymore.

Lets just say that IronMan to me, is like taking STPM. Yes, i find STPM to be the hardest time in my life, Diploma and Degree were a breeze compared to STPM.

And once i'm done with IronMan 2008 next year, I know anything else that comes, will be a breeze.

Meanwhile, just forgive those that do not understand why you swim, bike and run under the hot afternoon sun, get sun burned, suffer in Pain, Feeling Dead and Putting yourself in Hell.

So, yes, it's completely OK for this blog to be certified as PG, because i truly believe that to compete in this sport, it's not kids' play.

You train whole year long. You sacrifice your time. You put your body in Pain. You will drop Dead. And it will be nothing less than Hell.





To all the Triatheletes out there, I salute you.

Edited: Apparently, this entry "upgraded" me from PG to R...