Life of an Age-Grouper

 And I quote , " The full Iron distance is weird.  I'm glad I did it and I'm proud of my accomplishment, but I kind of don't think it is as big a deal as many people make it.  I still prefer the 70.3 distance for 2 reasons:  I can have a better life balance and you can actually race it." Yet here we are about 3 months removed from the completion of your second full distance triathlon, Challenge Roth. If the full distance didn't set fireworks off inside you the first time then why did you decide to toe the line again?    Hahaha, well, I never said I wasn’t going to do another full Iron distance race, I just said I preferred 70.3.   To better explain that previous answer of mine, I was trying to get at the idea that many triathletes feel like you have to complete a 140.6 to be taken seriously which is so misguided in my opinion.   To me, triathlon is all about challenging yourself and having fun doing something you love – it’s that simple. ...

1. This past season was little different than previous seasons for you being that you jumped up to Ironman racing. Why the jump? "Two years ago I had done a half ironman called, Toughman. There was a number I had set in my head and if I was able to break 5 hours and 15 minutes I would “reward” myself with the punishment of doing an Ironman. I was actually able to beat that time by 3 seconds. So last year I decided to pretty much do nothing but Sprints and Olympics to almost take the year not off but, focus on shorter more intense stuff rather than dealing with endurance racing. This year I just bit the big one and decided to tackle the ironman and it has been an amazing adventure and Im really glad that I did it. " 2. There are plenty of legendary ironman distance races in the United States so why is it that you chose Challenge Roth in Germany to be your first? "There were a few different reasons. I wanted to do something special for my first one....