“Shorter triathlons are about pain. Endurance triathlons are about suffering. How much suffering can you take?”

~ Lisa Wei-Hass after completing a Double Anvil race
(4.8 miles swimming, 224 miles biking, then 52.4 miles running)
Linked to NY Times article.

“I know this is not good for my body. . .But it is good for my soul.”

~ Jay Lonsway, Urologist
Linked to NY Times article.

Recently, I awoke tired and hungry, feeling weak and unmotivated to exercise. Both workouts the day prior felt slow and un-energetic. It was long-ride day (1:45 at this stage in training) and normally I would ride first thing.

Instead, I gave in, had a large breakfast, and procrastinated a little more.

To my delight, by mid-morning I was ready to go! The rest and food gave me energy for a fantastic ride. I felt great, worked relatively hard, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

As I rode, I decided to look at those longer distance races, just out of curiosity (I was riding indoors and can look at my phone and ride). I came across this great article, which I remember reading years ago. It’s a fun thorough read, providing the gems above. The quotes are from people competing in five Ironman-distance races combined (they cannot use the word Ironman because it is a different company, Anvil, but the word conveys the distance, so I’m using it). They can choose to do either all the swim, then all the bike, then all the run continually over the 5 days, broken up however they want in terms of rest breaks; or they can choose to do a new race each day, within the 17 hour cut-off and starting at 7am each day.

That’s NUTS. But the sentiment for why these people would do such a thing gets close to why I choose to do the single, 17 hour version, and I suspect that you may feel the same if you have gotten into 70.3 (half-ironman) or longer races. If you haven’t done the longer races, and this article and/or the quotes speak to you, then you clearly want to, and therefore should, and I can’t wait to hear about it!

Or, as this quote puts it: “Some of those family members came to watch their loved ones destroy their bodies, if not their minds, for nearly a week because … because … why? “If you have to ask,” more than a few racers replied, ‘you will never know.'”