April 2008

At 7.55am on 16 April I turned on my mobile phone. It pinged to tell me I had a message. The message read

"Shit u got a lottery spot into Hawaii!!!! I am so jealous".

With those words I let out some very unmanly noises, waved my arms around, wiped a tear from my eye and dashed to the computer (hoping that the internet would be working) and went straight to www.ironman.com. Could it be true? Could I have been given the chance to fulfill the dream?

Sure enough - there was my name on the list. It was real - I was going to Kona!!

After a couple of days I got an email which started "Aloha lottery winner" and the formalities for registration and payment would begin. Having done Florida 70.3 world champs, IM Western Australia and Geelong 70.3 - I had met the criteria of doing at least a 70.3 event - so by the end of April... I was all set. The formalities were over.

I had a fantastic response from friends who were all really pleased for me - although of course all were really jealous. After all, I have never finished in the first half of my age group, so there are plenty of better triathletes than me. That said - a lottery is a lottery and it doesnt rely on skill. Luck, maybe some passion and I am sure having done 12 ironman's probably helped too. Most importantly I entered the lottery and gave myself a chance...

The rest of April was spent being competely stunned and excited, watching a few old ironman races and sobbing on the couch, getting a little scared, and focusing on getting my training right for the world championships to be held in Vancouver (Olympic distance) on 7 June.

2008 is sure going to be a big year!

A few years ago I set a goal of doing all 4 world championship triathlons
- olympic distance
- ironman 70.3
- long course, and of course
- the Hawaii Ironman

I had no idea I would have the opportunity to complete that quadrella as early as 2008.

Winter / spring 2008 will be serious training and I have made a few key decisions. No more alcohol until after Kona. No more subway until after Kona. And the hardest one of all - no more chocolate until after Kona!!!

Firstly I now need to finish the world championships in Vancouver - have a couple of weeks off - and start training for Kona in late June, which gives me about 16 weeks to get as fit as I possibly can be before the race starts goes off at 7am on Saturday 11 October 2008.