So if you know me at all, you saw the writing on the wall. It was inevitable. I signed up for my first full Ironman.

I’m sure it was obvious what was going to happen when I took a few days off of work and went up to Lake Placid for the weekend to cheer, volunteer, and train on the Ironman Lake Placid course. But I still wasn’t at 100% on signing up until I got through the weekend. As the week went on, I piece-by-piece removed any doubts in my mind that Lake Placid will be the race I’ll do as my first Ironman.

I started off the week biking a good portion of the course (conquering all the hills!), swimming in the lake, and generally soaking in the Ironman Lake Placid experience. [Recap of those things are in Friday’s post here.]

I was lucky to know tons of people doing the race, as well as others up there doing the same sort of thing as me – cheering on friends and volunteering. The atmosphere was exciting, the air charged with anticipation. It was an incredible week even before race day arrived.

And as race day drew near, I felt pretty confident that I would sign up at some point once the race weekend was over. I spent race day spectating and volunteering. I have a full “race recap” coming since I have tons of amazing photos of the race to share with you.

And as it turned out, I signed up first thing on Monday morning when registration opened up for volunteers. I was about to hit the road for home and realized that waiting until later to register was silly – I had made up my mind.

In 2017 I’ll finally be an Ironman.

I’ve been long obsessed with this, for years in fact. I used to record and watch all the Ironman races on cable TV, when they used to broadcast a lot of them – not just the world championships in Kona. I traveled to Frankfurt to watch my friend do Ironman Germany when I was 5 months pregnant with my first baby, and I knew then that I would someday do that.

And finally the timing is right.

I’ll do a more complete recap of the day – I have tons of awesome photos – but for now I just wanted to share that yes, “I signed up for that”. I have two half Ironmans this fall (Atlantic City & North Carolina/Beach to Battleship) and then I’ll kick my training into high gear after the new year for Ironman Lake Placid 2017. All while juggling work, kids, international travel to Russia, blogging, and being the race director for a big 10K race next Spring.

I arrived home from the weekend and my daughter was still awake. I gave her a present – a Women For Tri hat – and told her all about the weekend, sharing pictures and stories. And I told her I signed up for a full Ironman. She immediately said she’d be there to cheer me on. I can’t wait to share the experience with her and inspire her to go for her goals and dreams.

Who says I take on more than I can handle? Because don’t worry – I’ll handle it! I can’t wait to share the journey here on the blog and on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

What’s your BIG DREAM GOAL? What’s stopping you from taking the plunge?

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