What Ironman Teaches You

I could be flippant and talk about the things Ironman taught me that maybe no one wants to learn. Ironman taught me how to pee in a water bottle. It taught me how to pee while biking. It taught me how to make myself eat a clif bar and swish it down with warm Gatorade no matter how much I didn’t want to eat. It taught me to have very little care about people seeing me at my worst. It taught me to pick up shot blocks off the side of the road that had been run over by a car and eat them anyway, even filled with gravel, because I needed the calories. It taught me how to get on a bike and start pedaling BEFORE putting my feet into the shoes. It taught me to put ice down my bra and down my shorts when it’s hot, and feel that warm dribble down into my shoes.

But there are some things that Ironman taught me that I truly value, things I didn’t know that I would learn. It taught me how to keep moving, even when exhausted. It taught me that I could be strong even when I was weak. It taught me that pain doesn’t define me. It taught me to keep going long past when I thought I would give up. It taught me that the best part of any Ironman race is the very end, when the slowest, most injured, most determined people come through. It taught me to cheer for every single athlete who comes by and call them each by name because they deserve to be seen as heroes.