IRON 
AN !!!!!
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Welcome to those of you linking from the St. X newsletter. Thanks for the recognition Mark, but you forgot to mention that this "news" is not at all new. But I'm still proud of this accomplishment, so if you're interested, by all means, please read on! Oh, and sorry about any broken links, I haven't updated in quite a long time.
August, 2002
I did it!
We began training for Ironman in October of last year, so I’ve had 10 months (at least) to imagine myself coming down the finish chute. To imagine the thrill when all that training pays off. The finish line crown cheers wildly, you run (or fall) through the tape, and the announcer screams “Neal Smyth: YOU… ARE… AN… IRONMAN!”
The journey is complete! I am an ironman. I finished in 14:55:44, excited, proud, one last burst of adrenaline letting me jump up and down for joy as I crossed the line.
It was a fantastic day, a perfect cap to all of the journey. In the end, it’s not really about the finish line, that’s just a nice symbol of how far you’ve traveled. The entire journey has been a tremendous success… a long ‘moment’ that I’ll always treasure. I have to say, I loved almost every single moment of the day, and every minute that I had prepared for it was well worth it. And I think I might have had more fun out on the course than any of the 1750 athletes out there. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a race.
For the benefit of those of you
who said “tell us ALL about it”, I’ve written up my experiences of the
weekend. I warn you, even by my
standards, it’s long. Take this one on
a long coffee break, or pull up a comfortable chair…
BEGIN THE STORY
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RACE MORNING SWIM BIKE RUN
Written by Neal Smyth, last updated August 13, 2002