What my one shaved Leg taught me about the Ironman
This is really a funny story; it was my first Ironman, 2006 Wisconsin, one of the best weeks of my life without question. If you ever have completed an ironman or are thinking of doing one you probably do understand how much preparation goes into getting to the starting line. It is a year or more of training, both physically and mentally.
With you first Ironman it is much worse, even though you prepare, study and learn all you can, what lingers over your head is the unknown factor of the fact that you have no idea what it really is like out there, and if indeed you are truly ready to go the distance of 140.6 miles in 17 hours. My training had been good, I felt great and had no injuries. For all I knew I was ready and what I didn’t know well I didn’t know.
The Drive to Wisconsin
The plan was to drive from Connecticut to Wisconsin; there were 18 of us going to the race from our club, fantastic to have that many friends going to do the race. Of the 18, 12 of us were caravanning our way out with one overnight stop along the way. We had a fantastic time driving out, and I drove with multiple ironman finishers and the drive gave me plenty of time to pick their brains. At some point shaving your legs as a guy came up, and different reasons for doing so were given. Here are a few.
- Reason one – Aerodynamics – With regards to cycling, this is one reason I have a hard time believing. Shaving to become “aero” applies to swimmers primarily and we will touch on that in a moment
- Reason two – The Bike Crash – There’s an old adage that applies to cyclists and it goes something like this – “there are two types of cyclists, those that have fallen (wiped out) and those that will.”
- Reason three – The Rub Down – After those long training rides, getting a rub down is critically important, hair on your legs poses a pain factor problem, it freaking hurts
- Reason four – Keeps you cooler – ok that is just flat out funny.
The real reason, who knows I have some theories on it, but that would be another article, bottom line for my journey to Wisconsin by the time I arrived at the hotel I was convinced to shave my legs, why not everyone else was doing it. It must be important.
To find out why only one of my legs was shaved when I showed up for dinner, please check out this post.
