Ironman Debut ???

So, in speaking with a friend of mine and catching up with him, surprisingly enough, the topic of ironman came up. (Go figure eh?) :) Well we got chatting and he was asking how the triathlon that I was training so hard for went and I told him a little about what it was like. (It's kind of hard not to barf for like 5 hours to someone who asks about it. I kind of have to keep myself in check...) It's easy to talk about, but I have to pull back on the reigns everyonce in a while and say to myself, "I bet they REALLY don't want to hear about how I dialed in my nutrition in the weeks leading up to the race or how I attached my spare tubes and levers to the back of my bike for the race..."



So anyway, we get talking and I tell him that I ended up going a 10:31 and that I know I can do one faster only because my run wasn't under control. He congratulates me and says something to the effect of, "you know 10:31, thats not too bad for your Ironman debut..."

Now this kind of struck me as odd. I know I am going to do several other IM's in my life, but never have I thought of this time in Florida as my ironman "debut". I guess it stems from our running background when the announcers would say as you toed the line that this was your marathon debut, or 3200m debut on the track after doing so well at 1600m. I don't know, it still struck me as odd.

Debut is one of those words you hear for the Professionals who are in your area going to burn up the course at a new distance. You certainly wouldn't be smiling like a maniac in the photo I have below (when I FINALLY got to the run course in Florida...) and I suppose you would take things a lot more seriously if you were a professional athlete making an ironman "debut" and had a lot on the line for this race.I guess what I'm getting at is that even though I know this isn't my last Ironman race, I hardly thought of it as a debut. I thought of it more as the first try. Along with 48% of the field at IMFL, we were all in the same bucket as first time IM'ers going on our virgin voyage thru this obstacle. I thought of the old cliche they always told you in high school, "look to the person to your left, and look at the person to your right, one of those people is a first time ironman"
The only time I ever want to hear that it is a "debut" is when I finally become a professional. I think then it is appropriate. To hear that this is your professional debut makes it sound like you know what the hell you are doing and are actually going to race it and perhaps do very well in your race. You shouldn't end up like this in the massage tent post race in your Ironman "debut":
Maybe this post was just an excuse to load up a few more photos from IMFL onto the site. Who knows. There are a few more I would like to add and perhaps I will add them later on today. For now, I would like to close with a shot of me and my dad after I finished. It was great having you there dad. Thanks for making the trip a memorable one. :)