The First Step.

The first step was probably the easiest.  Just sign up for Ironman Wisconsin. I had heard that it was incredibly hard to get in so I thought..what the heck..once the online registration opens I will hop on the computer and if I get registered it was meant to be..if not there is always next year or Ironman Louisville.  Needless to say registration opened at exactly 11:00 a.m. on the Monday after the 2010 race and I got right to the registration page, finished registering, went to the pay page and..got booted off the system.  I continued to get booted off for the next 35 minutes until I got the sorry, registration is closed message.  I guess it was not meant to be.  But wait!  Apparently the folks at Active.com could not handle the huge demand on their servers and had to shut the site down.  The registration was reopened on Wednesday..and after only two attempts I got to the billing page, submitted my credit card info and ..nothing.  Did I get in?  There was no way to know. I called my credit card company to see if my charge went through and the computers were down..OK..who is screwing with me?  Finally an hour later I received an email. I was registered for Ironman Wisconsin.  At first I was very excited..and then I thought..what the heck did I just do?  Should I not tell anybody in case I fail miserably in my training or tell everyone so that I had the pressure from family and friends to see this thing through.  I do not want to "survive" the race.  I want to race it and feel comfortable doing it. Now its time for the reality check to see if the mere "surviving" the event should be my goal.