On Sunday, I was planning on signing up for Ironman Florida. I was down in Buffalo watching the Leafs play the Sabres on Saturday night with some friends, and arrived back home on Sunday afternoon. I went online to signup for next year’s race, and to my shock, the race had already sold out!! It took less than an hour!

Truth be told, I was debating whether or not I wanted to commit to an Ironman. With a heavy school load until next August, and not being sure of where I will end up in the fall, I am worried about how much time I will have to train next summer. At the same time, signing up for the race would be tremendous motivation for me to train hard all winter and get into great shape for next year!

There are 20 Ironman Florida qualifying spots up for grabs in Muskoka. My new plan is to train hard this winter and win one of those!!!

The NYC Marathon was held yesterday. There was a lot of publicity about Lance Armstrong running his first marathon. Check out his post race comments in this article in the Toronto Star (you may need to register to view it – it’s free though).

It made me feel a lot better about my own performance in Toronto a few weeks ago to see that Lance, a seven-time Tour de France champion, called the marathon “the hardest physical thing I have ever done.” He did manage to break 3 hours though – 2:59:36. Pretty impressive!

With everything I’ve had going on with school in the past couple weeks, I completely forgot to post about the Ironman World Championships, held in Kona, Hawaii on October 21, 2006. This race is considered one of the ultimate endurance tests in the world, and is the triathlon world’s equivalent to the Super Bowl.

What makes this race so special is that there are qualifying spots available to us average “age-group” athletes, who get a chance to race alongside the best in the world. Participants either need to qualify through another Ironman event, or win one of a few spots available through a lottery.

There were a number of athletes from the KW area competing at Kona this year. My marathon training partner, Wolfgang Schmidt, qualified in Arizona in the spring, and Bob Dawson qualified in his first Ironman at Lake Placid in July. Both of these guys are in their 40’s, and I am amazed at what phenomenal shape they are in. From talking with them over the past few months, I have really realized the commitment required to train for an Ironman. These guys think nothing of 6-7 hour training days. While training for the marathon, I did all my long Sunday runs with Wolfgang, and learned a lot about what it takes to hold up over those distances. It’s been a great inspiration to hang out with these guys and see how they train.

Anyway, both of these guys had great races. Wolfgang’s finished in 11:34:48, and was 108/166 in the M45-49 categoy, while Bob finished in 10:49:26, 123/215 in the M40-44 age group. Awesome stuff when you consider that they’re up against the best in the world. Congrats guys – hopefully one day I will be there with you!!

PS – Read the official Ironman race wrap-up. There was a 6.7 earthquake on the island the week before, which made things interesting!

PPS – Down below I posted about Dick and Rick Hoyt. There were back again this year. Read about it here!