I Wanna Go Again?

There's a story in my family, that we tell in the context of taking on something scary or overcoming one's fear of something. The story takes place at a small, local amusement park called Idelwild and it involves our youngest daughter, who was probably 6 at the time.

We all were in line for a ride called Rafter's Run and the line was long. Rafter's Run is a water ride where gravity does most of the work, but it's not really a water slide because you ride in a raft / boat and you don't get wet. Anyway, as we climbed higher, towards the start of the ride our youngest started to get scared. Her fear and protests grew with each new platform until finally, she announced that she was not going to go on the ride, she wanted to walk back down. This of course was not possible since the line was basically single file and there were hundreds of people behind us blocking our retreat.

Slowly we moved forward, reassuring her that the ride would be fun, that she would have a good time and that everything would be ok. Finally it was our turn and somehow we convinced her that she needed to get into the raft and come with us. We probably threatened to leaver her on the platform (that's how we rolled back then) but that's another story.

Anyway, we all loaded up in the raft and we were off. She started screaming pretty much right away - Ahhhhhhh! This continued nearly the entire way to the bottom, until the Ahhhhh suddenly turned into Ahhhh-I-WANT-TO-GO-AGAIN. So we did. And then again, and at least one more time for good measure.

So you're probably thinking what the hell does this story have to do with IronMan? Well, I'll tell you. I sincerely wanted to feel this way about IronMan. I wanted to be freaked out and nervous and scared and anxious and all of that crap. I wanted to put myself out there and scream Ahhhhh! at the top of my lungs, and in the end, I really, really wanted that Ahhhhhh! to turn into Ahhhhh-I-WANT-TO-GO-AGAIN.

And finally it did!

It took a little longer than I expected, I think because of the sunburn (yes it's really THAT bad), but I totally and completely want to go again. 

In the week since IMTX I've been floating, hapless, missing something, I don't know... It's hard to explain, but something's not right.

So I've planned out the rest of this season and I'm working on next as well since the big races fill up so damn fast. Options for next season include IMLP or more likely IMAZ since we have so much family in AZ. I guess the other option is IMTX again, but I'll have to act fast on that one since registration is already open.   

So there it is, I Want To Go Again!

Clark