Deca Ironman is on

It has been a long time and just when I thought I could 'retire' from these crazy events, my last being in 2015! my Triple Ironman . Claire at http://decauk.co.uk/ decides to host the UK's first Deca Ironman. How can I resist!

The Stats

To summarise this is a continuous 24 mile swim, 1,120 mile bike ride and then finishing with a 262 mile run all of which you have to complete within the 12 day cut off.

Putting this into some perspective it is approximately the equivalent of:

Swimming the English Channel (or a little under a marathon distance)

Cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats and back again

Running from London to the Lake District

It all kicks off on July 21st!

The Why

I was originally going to keep this on the quiet and just announce when I felt good and ready (closer to the time) but sadly my cousin John Power aka Loki Dread had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and I felt i to do something to 'help'.
Given this awful news I decided to raise money for a good cause which is why I am raising money for Macmillan. Macmillan has been amazing in helping John and his family come to terms with his illness and supporting him throughout with home care. If it was not for Macmillan he would not have been allowed home surrounded by his loving family of a wife and two amazing young daughters.

I had announced my event just before Christmas on other social media places but I have now decided to kick start my blog again throughout this journey to keep others updated and myself on track.

Sadly John passed away in the new year.

This is for you cuz

You

It would be amazing to have donations, if you would like to please use this link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/doddi-deca

An itch that wont go away

Just as the title says I have had something churning over in my mind for quite some time now. Despite the setbacks that I have had for the past few weeks/months with injuries and general lack of mojo there has been a thought process or should I say an event drilling its merry way into my head.

I even went through the process of booking another event (sorry Equinox24 I will be back in 2016) that happened to be on the same weekend as this one just to try and clear it from my mind, as you can probably already guess, the mind won. I gingerly approached the subject to the wife and surprisingly she was keen for me to give it a go, I'm wondering if there might be some life insurance involved somewhere, and I might be slightly over exaggerating the keenness on her part  but it was a yes. I have now committed myself to taking on this challenge.

This event is a one time event never to be held again (maybe) which if I am being honest is part of the appeal, it is the Triple Brutal iron distance triathlon, this is a continuous 7.2mile swim, 336mile (30000ft) cycle and 78mile (6000ft) run with the addition of a stroll up and down Snowdon itself! Not only that but being held over in Snowdonia it is probably going to have some interesting weather thrown into the mix especially considering that the event is held in September.

I have already completed the single iron distance of this event back in 2012 which was my first year of triathlons and I still remember the pain it caused, especially the cold swim! This is without a doubt going to be my toughest challenge to date and I have no idea how I am going to get the training, food, sleep and family life (not necessarily in that order in case she is reading!) to all fit together but I/we will make it work.

It has only just occurred to me whilst writing this blog that this year I will be doing 5 ironman events in total, this will not only double my total iron distance races but it will also take the total to a nice round 10! I am counting doubles and triples as 2 and 3 iron races :-) This is going to be a tough year.

If anyone needs me I will be swimming, riding or running......