Paris Marathon 2008

DV - thank you so much, inspirational and wise words.  I am so sorry to hear about your ex-colleague though, how very sad. I cannot understand people who just work work work as you say, it seems so pointless...

Quite scared of the cycling as I've basically never done any in my life (well, I had a bike as a kid, and 5 years ago did 65km downhill on Bolivia's 'death road' - but that hardly counts!) so I do feel I should buy a bike before committing. Similar with swimming, can only do breast stroke and most I've ever done non-stop was about 1km I think, and that near killed me!

Barry K - saw you over at the IMCH thread, glad it's not just me! Thanks for bringing up the subject of money... it's going to be my biggest issue too. Could put a hold on this crazy dream.. but would at least give more time to think about it. 

Good Morning..   yes, lots to consider... and you can't escape the money aspect, but it doesn't have to be expensive.   Remember also that you will use the bike and wet suit more than once and may want to have a go at other tri events as well.   Entry fees, hotels, travels etc do all add up though..

Fo the swim, you do need to learn to do the distance front crawl.  You will want to save your legs for the rest of the day and you basically learn to pull yourself through the water.  If you can already do 1k you are well ahead of where I started.  I had never in my life swam 25m of a pool until last November!

It is do-able..  but it is a huge challenge, so don't under-estimate the task ahead.

Fantastic & inspiring stuff DV - (BR thinks about going out and buying a tri suit tomorrow).  The work stuff is true, It's fairly grim here at the moment trying to hold things together, falling into 11 hour days.  But the running is a great stress buster.

Pretty awful 5k last night, nearly a PW, good first half then an atrocious 2nd half.  Not much sleep the night before may have been the problem.  On the positive side it felt like a good hard training run .

Cheers for that DV.  Lots to think about.

BR - have you worked out what kit you're going to get yet?

No Barry, but it will be very bright and very expensive .

Seriously I think the triathlon ambitions are on hold until I get my sub 3:15 marathon.

I don't really want to do a tri until after I've got a sub-3.45 marathon in the bag either but I'm soooo positive I can do that next spring I might just enter a tri for later in 2009 anyway!  

Have a feeling that buying a tri suit will be the most fun thing of the whole process, heh heh...

Good for you, Tutu! Now, what distance Tri are you going for?  You could run your sub-3.45 in Paris with DV and then go to .... * His account is so inspiring I've had to remind myself a million times that I'm no nearer the deep end of the local pool than I was 2 weeks ago.. lol* Yeah, buy a suit! Then you have to get the wear out of it...

Rubble, there must be a  word that describes the bizarre desire to wear yellow lycra. * Doctor, is it serious? *

How's the swimming going, Barry K?

ATM wrote (see)

How's the swimming going, Barry K?

Well done, you

J3ff, what happened to your LAMM report?

Barry K - you have mail! Can't believe we are both moving house at the same time as well as toying with incredibly stupid ideas.............

ATM - the simple answer is I'm contemplating following in DV's ridiculous footsteps and jumping in at the very very deep-end of an IM! (-so is Barry...!)  But who knows, I may come to my senses and do a shorter one in training - I guess it sort of / completely makes sense! I remember wanting to run a marathon as my first race before my training partner suggested we should do a 10k and half marathon first, and realised how much fun racing was! So could be the same with tris I suppose...?!

It's becoming scarily more real every day at the moment............... 

 Sounds perfectly ( un ) reasonable.Go Tutu 'n ' Barry, Go!

So..  Tutu... you up for it in Zurich then..?  

It'll be a giggle....!

C'mon, you lot...

What about a slide over to the 2009 thread? Just so's  anyone new can find us? mmm I know, I know...it's really, really cosy here.... BUT

 What if there's there's another middleaged/Welsh/no-hoper/newbie/Elvis-fan etc out there who needs us?

 I'm suggesting the ' Giant Leap Forward't to Paris Marathon 2009

Non, cheri, we don't have to be able to speak French....as long as we can talk rubbish. Come and post on the thread DV started *  So we can make a list...*  

There's loads of good info 'on this thread but who's ever going to scroll back  to find it? And it might seem too much like a 'club' for anyone new...maybe? DV's just pointed out that the FLM ballot results will be out before Registration for Paris opens so there might be loads more of us making the 2009 trip. Great!

Agree, 2009 thread is a good idea. Though I probably won't post there unless I am going to do it - which currently I am not planning to, sorry  

DV - yes, Zurich is the plan!! Will keep you posted... can't believe entry is opening so soon,it's becoming far too real.... hopefully going bike shopping at the weekend through my work's 'bike to work' scheme, and having my first swimming lesson on Monday..