I’ll tell you how many… 61,200 – that’s how many. Big number huh? For whatever reason though this seems marginally less horrendous than 17 hours. 17 hours what? Ironman 140.6. 140.6? That’s 140.6 miles in total – swimming 2.4 miles, riding 112 miles and then running 26.2 miles. One after another – no breaks – “Santa Clause doesn’t give any breeeeeaks” (If you haven’t seen the rather epic movie ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, watch it, it has Dwayne Johnson. Who? THE ROCK #pow)

Seeing as this “blog” (laaaaaame I feel like some kind of modern day hipster “oh yar I totally blog y’know”) is aimed at addressing both my training (fuelling) and eating (foodie) tendencies it seemed wise to discuss my current, somewhat ambitious, challenge. To be fair, most of you, unless you have managed to escape my Facebook/Instagram/Email/Whatsapp barrage of pleas for support – will already be aware that I am competing (PAH! If competing equals trying not to die then yes, I am competing) in the 2015 Wales Ironman 140.6.

Some of you are probably already scan reading this because it’s boooooooooooring. Well it’s NOT boring. Watch and I will prove it to you. Starting with some bullet points! We like bullet points…..

1. Ironman events are ridiculous. Fact. More to follow on this…..

2. Towards the end of last year I had never run a marathon, never ridden a road bike and couldn’t swim more than 50m without choking on chlorine/nearly drowning

3. I started training 6 months ago – it has been very up and down. More to follow on this also….

Ok, first things first, why did I decide to do this? This is actually difficult to explain and I don’t want any violin quartets to start playing in the background so I will be blunt. I have never been the most confident lass (geordie creeping out – SQUASH IT BACK DOWN – that’s better), I finally started to feel more confident last year, I got stronger and faster in the gym and decided to push myself. Well, actually it is now becoming apparent I decided to push myself off a cliff but never mind. It was reading a friends Facebook status updates about his brother competing in an Ironman – he posted throughout the event with things like “he’s out of the water!”, “starting the bike!” and then eventually “He’s done it! He is an Ironman!”. Goosebump city. I was sitting thinking, well that’s just mental. Who the bloody hell could do that? And then, me being me, I thought about it more and thought “Imagine what that must feel like? Crossing that finish line?”. More shivers. More reading. More sheer amazement. Google google. Oh they have Ironmans in the UK. Bolton? Ew no thanks (no offence Bolton-ites). Wales! Oh yes we like Wales, very pretty…. click click. Read read. 13th September. Hmmm. Open purse. Credit card. Type type. OH MY BLOODY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE.

……signed up. Best part of £400 spent on the privilege. Shit. (sorry about the language, it’s necessary). Right well we better get cracking. What do I need? Oh, is that all? JUST ONE OF EVERY ITEM YOU CAN THINK OF FOR SWIMMING, BIKING AND RUNNING. Ok that’s fine. It’s an investment. Ignore the man in the bike shop staring at you like you’ve lost your mind because you’re signed up to one of the hardest races in the world and you don’t know how to clip your cleats into your pedals. It’s aaaaaaaaaall fine.

Fast forward 4 or 5 months of training, a hell of a lot of sickness, injury, exhaustion, tears, more tears, some sweat, actually make that loads of sweat and answering the question “oh my god – what made you sign up?!” a million times and we get to around the beginning of April. Enter Fran, Rhys and Bruce – oh and Jack, but he’s always there, nice boy.

Fran = Ironman Coach, ex special forces, spanish accented superhero, makes me lift stupid heavy weights and writes my daily training schedule

Rhys = Physio, first time 140.6 Ironman’er and general magician when it comes to injury

Bruce – Bike wizard, 3D bike fitting specialist and boss at Velosport

(Jack – Nutritional Guru and six pack sporting best friend)

These three (four) chaps are now my team for Wales. Without them I would be injured, weak, over training, under eating, riding my bike wrong and just LOST.

I don’t want to get boring on people and start selling services, that is not the point of this “blog” (can someone find me a new phrase please?). What I want to do is make it clear how important these people are to me. Their knowledge, skills and support are what will get me over the finish line.

…….bloody hell. I better get over the finish line.

Rhys told me the other night he wants me to encourage more females into the world of terrifying sport. Ok he didn’t say that. But he did say I was a “positive influence”. Nice huh?! If that is true and this little flow of thought has made you think about doing something then DO IT. Tweet me (waaaa I am a tweeting twittering twitter’er now! @catmacpherson), Facebook me, Instagram me – whatever. That’s a ton of social media, I feel dirty, I hate those 2k15 hashtagging loons but needs must.

Really though, do it – I dare you… I DOUBLE dare you….

…………Follow me on twitter. Please? Do I sound desperate? Oh.

C xx