This past Sunday was one of my favorite days of the year. My home town of Madison, WI is host to one of the IronMan races. Some people think that I am a triathlon and ironman hater because I don’t think it is the best way to lose fat. I did get a few emails from people amazed at some of the larger athletes, but at the same time, we don’t know their whole story. Two of the largest people I saw competing had actually lost a lot of weight, one woman had lost 180 lbs and a guy had lost 220 lbs! So obviously training like they did and probably eating much better than before, did wonders for their weight.
But I still hold steady to my belief that resistance training with interval training is far better at burning fat than 20-35 plus hours of cardio that they do each week to prepare for their race.
Ok, enough with the whole losing fat debate! An Ironman finish is unbelievable. The amount of mental and physical strength it takes a person to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then run a marathon 26.218 miles is awe inspiring and extremely impressive. The race takes the average person between 12-16 hours to finish. Each year I either cry or get teary eyed watching the race.
Each person has a story, I wish I could hear all of them! I biked the Ironman bike loop last week and met a guy as he flew passed me. He asked me if I was competing next week and I said, “no, but I will be watching!” It turns out he was going to be competing for his 4th time, but 9 weeks earlier he had a tumor removed from his brain and only 4 weeks ago got permission from his doctor to start training… and here he is flying by me on his bike, if that doesn’t give you goosebumps, I don’t know what does!
There was even a guy in his 70′s that completed the race. Remember anything is possible if you put your mind to it. The only thing stopping you is your limiting beliefs!
About 8 months ago I featured another story about Dick and Rick Hoyt who do the Ironman races together, if you don’t know who they are, you need to click this link after reading this post and watch the video, keep Kleenex handy though!
I put together a little video from the race for those who didn’t want to get up at 5:30 AM or those who don’t live in Wisconsin or the United States. I didn’t get any bike footage because I was cheering on my Vikings (sorry Packer fans!) to victory, but got back in time to see the pros finishing.
Enjoy the video that is very raw and unedited.
If you are in the Madison or surrounding area and were inspired by these stories and video and want to maybe compete in a short triathlon or just want to get to a place where your body can do what you want it to do, I would like to invite you to come check out one of my many Fit Fun Bootcamps, where every day heroes are changing their bodies, changing their beliefs, and changing their attitudes. If you haven’t tried one out before, I would like to offer you a FREE week trial (just tell the instructor you read this on the blog) I would love to be able to work with you and help change your life more than you could ever believe!
We are kicking off our indoor season of bootcamps on Sept 26th at 8 AM at MadTown Twisters on the west side of Madison with a FREE 60 minute bootcamp. Bring the whole family, there will be trainers there to work with your kids as well. Invite whomever you want, our goal is to have well over 100 attend!
Breaking News!
New indoor bootcamp schedule announcement! Click the link to find out where our 7 indoor locations are going to be held starting Oct 1st.








































That is very cool to see! I have never been down there to watch, I will have to try for sure next time! Very inspiring!! Thanks for sharing!
Great Event Dustin – I was able to volunteer almost the entire day on Sunday – helping in the female change tent after the swim and then as a catcher at the finish line. Amazing! I’m almost thinking of doing one myself, almost!
If this inspires anyone to try a triathlon there is one in McFarland on October 3. It is a small, no frills event with a home town feel to it. I will be doing it and invite my fellow boot campers to join me. The swim portion is in the high school pool. There is a link to the registration form on the McFarland community pool website.
What is the address for the McFarland location?
When I watched the Ironman for the first time, I couldn’t get enough! It was soooo inspiring to see so many different types of people competing. I tried to go home and go to sleep, but I had to get up and watch people finish. I was so inspired that my sister and I are going to do a sprint tri next summer!
Vikings… Vikings??? I know I’m totally focusing on the wrong part of this post but… Vikings? I knew you were too perfect to be true! GO PACK GO!
We are so lucky to have an event like this in Madison. Unfortunately I was unable to attend this year but did have the awesome experience of working the Ironman Triathlon for 2 years in Kona Hawaii. I volunteered my time as a massage therapist to the athletes. It was an experience I will never forget. The athletes are amazing and there determination like none I have ever seen.
The video doesn’t do it justice. I cheered on a coworker a couple years ago and the energy there is just awesome. It’s worth getting up early to be there in person!
Tracy P- I think you were my attendant from the swim to bike transtion. If it was you (not sure if there were other tracies), you were AWESOME! This was my first and almost definitely my last Ironman competition
and I have to say the volunteers rocked! I have volunteered in the past and not after actually particiating in the event I have an even better appreciation for the volunteers. This was the most challenging thing I have ever done and there were numerous times throughout the day that I wanted to quit. With the support of my friends and family, I am able to say I am an Iroman Finisher and I had 12 minutes to spare.
I agree with Dustin about this training not exactly being the best for losing weight as I acutally gained weight. I was ALWAYS hungry and with wroking out htat much I needed the fuel to keep going.
I look forward to trying out bootcamp and burning some calories and trying a new challenge.
How do we watch/find the IM video you created Dustin?
The video is within this post… Just a quick 7 min recap. I look forward to working with you too melissa! Congrats on finishing, that is awesome!
Dustin