On May 28th I will be an Ironman
This article is not my story, but Gilles’s, a friend. I wanted to share it with you because it shows the importance of motivation in our projects, commitments. Motivation makes us win when the challenge is huge.
Gilles’s challenge
Gilles had a career in the catering sector. He always liked the own culture of this sector, the rate of work and the rigorousness required to succeed. Gilles started to work out when he was 49. He got used to it and challenged himself to become an ? Ironman ?. This term is reserved for athletes who completed an XXL triathlon:
- 3.8 km swim
- 180 km on the bike
- 42 km run (marathon)
After a 6 months preparation exclusively dedicated to this project, on Mai 28th 2016, Gilles became a 54 year old ? Ironman ?.
His feedback
I asked Gilles to give us his feedback on the experience of his challenge:
What were the important dates of the preparation?
- The race entry was on January 5th, 2016.
- In January, the training really got started. Trainings with the club, enrollment for a long trail running (33 km, 5 hours), very long bike rides (200 km), 4 km swims. I have needed to see If I was able to hold the distances of the stages.
- On February 26th, I set up a chart in which I wrote down the distances of every training. The goal of my preparation was to achieve every week the distance of the stage. It is one of the several pieces of advice that I had and that I decided to follow. It was not easy to follow, especially with the weather of the winter season and the fatigue caused by the training, but it worked.
- On April 4th, I started a diet plan. I had to lose weight (I weighed 90 kg, it is weighty), without losing muscle mass.
- On April 23rd, I went on a swimming and bike riding training week with my club.
- On May 16th, I started to gradually reduce the training not to be tired. It is not obvious to admit but it is essential if we do not want to be tired for the race.
- On May 26th I weighed 85 kg, it was still weighty but it fitted.
- On May 28th, at 7AM it was the race start, finally!!!!!
- On May 28th, at 8:30 PM I crossed the finish line after 13:30 hours. I was the 280th on 322 finishers and approximately 390 on the starting line. It is a very good time since the goal was to finish with a time estimated between 14 and 15 hours.
What did you learn from the preparation?
It was thrilling: we enquire a lot… We test ourself things that work and others that do not. It is very exhausting, but we end up with solutions to recover faster. Race is like an exam, a little bit of stress on the starting line but above all, a release. The result is the reward of all the time you spent training.
What are the lessons you can learn from for life?
This challenge gave me an amazing energy. It allows to keep a positive, more developed image of ourself when the project succeeds. The question you ask yourself about wether you will finish the race or not never occurred to me. The question was ? what are the means I can use to finish the race ?. It is an experience we experience alone, but the support, the pieces of advice from others allow you to tame it, to make it ? possible ?. Group’s caring helps a lot.
Motivation is essential to succeed.
We are all confronted one day or another with challenges that we wish to take-up:
- Creating and developing a company
- Moving and working abroad
- Succeeding in studies
These are examples I see everyday, but there are many others. The question Gilles asks us is: what are the motivations we have to succeed it? What are the means we have to run for our olympic games? What are the sacrifices we are willing to make to cross the finish line? What is our motivation, deep down?
Pascal Faucon - On May 28th I will be an Ironman
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