I’ve decided to postpone my IRONMAN until next year. Both of my coaches agree that it’s the best choice, and I’m certain it was the best decision for me.  It is a tough choice and, as you might imagine, a lot of thought went into this decision.

A part of it was definitely that there was no way that I was going to finish (I’m just not fast enough yet) and, as I mentioned, it’s been suggested to me that it’s a breach of etiquette to do a race you know you can’t finish, though plenty of people have also told me that they don’t believe in that so I certainly could have gone either way. It’s also a decision about money. Even though I’m trying to do everything on a budget this sport is not cheap. So instead of paying for Julianne and me to drive to Tempe, hotel, food, dogsitter etc, we were able to cancel our hotel reservation and I can dedicate all that money to training costs for next year’s IM.  I also don’t want to risk injury and/or have to deal with recovery time for a race that I can’t finish, and compromise my training for next year.

It’s disappointing to be sure, this was supposed to be the day I crossed the finish line and got the medal (and got to stop this training!) But this is my journey and I am embracing all of it – the good and the bad, the easy and the difficult, the extra year of workouts – and I have zero shame about postponing this event.

I couldn’t make it happen this year, so I’m giving it one more try – one more year of swimming, biking, and running ahead of me. Best of luck to everyone racing IMAZ today, and thanks to all the volunteers who make it happen! And huge, massive thanks to my coaches (failures on my part are mine and not theirs,) to my friends and family and all of the readers who have offered, and continue to offer, support and encouragement, it means the world to me!

As regular readers know, earlier this year I decided to take selfies of my workouts as a way to have a little keepsake from each one (or, at least the ones I didn’t forget to take a selfie of.) To celebrate all the work I did this year, I decided to put the pictures together for a little montage (because a montage makes everything better!) Here, in no particular order, are my 2016 workout selfies:

 

About danceswithfat

Hi, I’m Ragen Chastain. Speaker, Writer, Dancer, Choreographer, Marathoner, Soon to be IRONMAN, Activist, Fat Person.