How bad were you...

swimming: county standard, university squad, swam channel twice

cycling: had completed Race Across America and Race Across Australia, semi-pro mountain biker, worked as a cycle courier

running: completed 35 marathons, average time sub-2:45

how did you end up being a fat git then Candy?

at least you're consistent in always being a git though.

I haven't seen you since you were a fat git, so my humble apologies

lol! of course not, I'm past the critical age and sadly I seem to have started shrinking

I could have sworn I was 5'3" but now I'm only 5'2"

I'm still hoping to become a lean mean racing machine though

Like a few people here, I'm going to have a go at Iron Man France.  It will be first ever tri event.  Until a few months ago I didn't even know what a tri was, who the pirates were, I didn't own a bike, had never in my life even swam a 25m length of a pool.  The decision to do IMF was a spur of the moment thing.  It all happened in one day.  I can run though. 

So.. a few months of research and talking to people and I've now got a six month training plan ahead of me. 

Therefore, to answer the initial question, for me it will be zero to IM in six months, working from a running background and a decent basic level of fitness.

BOING!

Swim:  only just very recently progressed past 4 lengths of FC in 25m pool, "huge panic issues"... but getting better

Bike:  used to do a bit of 'spin', now got cheap as chips double

Run:  mechanical nightmare... did a Half once last year but essentially starting from scratch after various injuries, now learning not to heel strike

Race experience:  sod all.... done one novice tri

swim:  debatable

bike:  I have one - baby steps

run:  do I need shoes for that?

race experience:   lots of random race experiences - but a couple sprints and 2 swims and a few miles on the bike

I'm with Dark Vader - zero to IMF in six months, working from a running background and a decent basic level of fitness. I couldn't front crawl until early May, had a 'Halfords specail' mountain bike in the shed that had just about rusted to the spot but no road bike.

Now aiming to get around Nice in under 10 hours 

This is great!! I don't know why on earth I'm even considering an IM but good to know it's not just me - I don't own a bike and can only swim breast stroke (and not that well!) at the moment... but if you want to do something enough you can, right?! Plan for this summer is to buy a bike and learn to crawl, then I'm laughing, right?!

Nobody tell my boyfriend, family or anyone else who knows me about this post please! You did not see me, I was not here!!

Biddy hell - its good reading! .. I was thinking of half IM by next year.. Tutu much - I've half mentioned it to my lot.. with some looks of WTF!! But maybe its more doable than I thought.. (recovering fitness from surgery, but up to mile continuous swim front crawl and back up to half-marathon run distance).  Just need a bike...  and found some OW swimming close by..  

Oooh, I feel a plan coming on.

I'm not sure I believe all these stories. Just how many hours of training went into those 12 months? Don't you people have jobs or a house to clean?

Here's where I am now:

Swim - haven't been for a few months but I'm fairly confident I could slap out 20 lengths of 'crawl' in 20 minutes. Panicky in open water unless I have a snorkel. Did 40 lengths without stopping once, 7 years ago.

Bike - have a cr*p mountain bike. Takes me about an hour to do 10km with 550m vertical climb (in the last 6k). Haven't done any flat stuff. Did a few 100k+ road rides (on the mountain bike) 7 years ago.

Run - Mainly run about on hills - no official times to post and unsure of the distances. Pretty sure I could slap out a 1:55 half marathon by September. Did a half pb of 1:40 er... 7 years ago.

(I guess I should have gone for an IM 7 years ago! )

Good points: I'm not fat

Bad points: I'm under 5ft.

Reading all the above stuff I actually look like Pirate material (i.e. cr*p) so why don't I feel at all convinced?
BTW have decided to bring my first marathon attempt forward from spring 2009 to November 2008 (after spending all Sunday watching the updates) going for the 3 runs a week First thingy I found in the training thing. Any thoughts?