Background

Everyone who has ever done a triathlon knows of the Hawaii Ironman. The annual highlights package always shows the best of our sport - the men and women having their greatest days and winning the event or their age group, through to the people who survive the day trying to get to that finish line inside the midnight cut off.



Many a tear has been shed watching those annual highlights packages - watching fantastic images of Julie Moss, Bob Jordan and the unbelievable crawl for 4th spot in 1997 between the two female pros along the finishing carpet.



I have always wanted to be out there - experiencing the most famous triathlon in the world - and after recovering from stress fractures in the late 1990's, took up the sport again in 2000, did my first half ironman in October 2001 and did my first Ironman at Forster in 2002. I finished in the darkeness with my glow stick in 13.00.52 and it was one of the most memorable and satisfying days of my life.



I have subsequently done a further 11 ironmans and (eventually) improved that PB set at Forster in 2002 at my 12th ironman in Western Australia - where I finished in 11.52.44.



There are two ways of getting into the Hawaii Ironman - being incredibly good and finishing in the first few in your age group at an Ironman event - or being incredibly lucky and being drawn in the annual lottery process for 200 spots (150 to US citizens and 50 for the rest of the world).

On 16 April, the opportunity to fulfill a dream came true when my name was selected in the ironman lottery. This was the first year I applied. This blog details my thoughts and progress towards competing at Kona on 11 October - and on living the dream.