Marathon
Strides Against MS
Paula "Ironman" Johnson
Five
years ago I really didn't have too much ambition to do sports.
I liked to ride a bike but that was about it. I had been
quite overweight and really wanted to improve my overall
health. One day at work, as an RN in a sports injury clinic,
I met a woman who had injured her knee and she told me she
was going to do a triathlon but needed help with her knee
first. I was always under the impression that triathlon was
limited to the "ultra-fit" type that you
see on TV, but this woman looked "average". I was
curious and asked her what the distances were of the race.
She explained
that there are a few different distances and the one she
was doing was a "sprint" which included a 750 meter
swim, 30 km bike ride and a 7 km run. Inspired, that evening
I went out for my first run in about 13 years...it was a
disaster. I lasted about a 5 minutes and then basically crumpled
up in a painful heap. My first attempt (in many years) at
swimming was equally disastrous But for some reason I did
not give up.
Over the next
7 weeks I persevered and on the 21 August 1999 I competed
in my first triathlon...AND LOVED IT!!! My life has been
changed dramatically for the better since. Over the last
5 years I have slowly increased the distances and last year
I competed in the IRONMAN triathlon and endurance race that
comprises of a 4 km swim, 180 km bike ride and the a 42 km
run....all in one day. The training takes about a year.
While I was
training last year a good friend, Karen, was diagnosed with
MS so I decided to make the race into a fundraising effort
for the MS society. I was very happy to make some money that
can be used in vital research to help find a cure for this
disease. I'm proud to say that I completed the Ironman in
Lake Placid, New York in July of 2003 in 13 hours and 52
mins. I enjoyed myself so much I signed up again for 2004
and actually managed to knock 50 mins off my finishing time,
and yes, you've guessed it... I'm going back once again in
2005 to race again, this time with my boyfriend that I met
last year while competing in the race. Let's just say there
is a healthy bit of competition going on with this relationship!!!
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