When most people think about triathlon they think about the Ironman. I would imagine because once a year in December the folks at NBC edit the nearly 17 hour race down into an hour and a half show that many years can bring you to tears. They show people who have overcome amazing hurdles just to be at the race and then they show the tear jerker moments of them crossing the finish line on Alli' drive to throngs of cheering fans. I will admit that it was the 2006 Ironman rebroadcast in June that led me to sign up for Ironman and subsequently become a triathlete. Pretty much anyone who is a triathlete or considering becoming a triathlete has Ironman dreams. So what things do you need to know when you are considering doing an Ironman?
1) Official United States Ironman events fill up fast. There are 8 Ironman events held every year in continental United States and the only ones that don't fill up within a matter of hours or at most a few days within the opening of registration are Ironman St. George and Ironman Louisville. If you want to be guaranteed a slot in any of the other events the best way is to be a volunteer on race day and then stand in line and sign up on site the day after the race. The reason volunteering is important is because the volunteers get to stand in a separate line and register before the non-volunteers do. While volunteering is not absolutely necessary because the events almost never fill up with the onsite registrants, it is a good opportunity to see the race from the inside and you seems to me there is no reason to risk it. I've had success using no volunteer onsite registration, volunteer onsite registration, and online registration. Given my proximity to Madison, Wisconsin, only 2.5 hours away, I tend to always use onsite registration but if I was doing some of the other events I would probably use online registration and use Ironman Louisville as my backup race if I didn't get in.
2) Don't let your friends, family, training partners, etc, talk you out of doing the race. To be honest other triathletes tend to be the biggest culprits when it comes to trying to talk you out of doing an Ironman. For some reason many experienced triathletes feel like beginners need to "earn the right" to do an Ironman by having a number races of all distances and racing seasons under their belt before they ever attempt an Iron distance race. My opinion is these people triathletes feel like it reflects poorly on them if someone does an Ironman before they did. Don't listen to them. Ironman is about training and having the will power to finish not about the number of races you have under your belt. Every time I've done Ironman there is always a few people there who are using it as their first triathlon, they suffer, but they do generally finish.
3) Get a hotel reservation the day you sign up for the race. Just like the races fill up fast the hotels fill up fast also. Using Wisconsin as example, if you don't get your hotel on registration morning there is no way to get a hotel downtown. I have never done an Ironman other then Wisconsin but I have to imagine it's the same at nearly every other race.
I'll put together a post later about other more race specific Ironman tips but these are a few things that I wish I would have known the first time I signed up for an Ironman. When I signed up the first time I drove up registration day, got in line at 9:00 when registration opened and was nearly the last person in line. I stood in line until nearly noon ended up being the 1800 person to sign up and they only took 2000 people so I was pretty close to not making it. Then I waited to get a hotel until that spring and had to stay a half hour away in a different city.
