Hump Day Giveaway: What’s Your Dream Race?

Thousands of thrashing bodies and no pool wall for a break. What's not to love?

I’ll give mine up right here: Kona. Hawaii. Ironman World Championships. 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, then a marathon to finish things up. (It’s this Saturday. I won’t be there.)

When I was growing up, I used to watch the Hawaii Ironman on ABC’s Wide World of Sports on a rabbit-eared black and white television. At the time, the athletes just seemed insane to me. I remember watching a 23-year-old Julie Moss, about to win the race, collapse just feet from the finish line. Who pushes their body that hard? My athletic resume, at that point, consisted of a random dodgeball game in gym and left field in softball, and just watching her collapse, then get up again, then collapse again almost made me want to collapse.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen–and this little bit of intrigue about the human body, and what it’s capable of doing, crept into my still-forming brain. It remains there, and these days, when I can get past the grocery list, the e-mail inbox, the bill paying, it makes appearances, like a ray of sunshine poking through a  cloud cover.

To me, an Ironman still feels ridiculously ambitious, but not totally impossible. Twenty years of being an endurance athlete has taught me that if I train smart and give myself enough time to get my body strong and stay injury-free (read: I start training now for a race in 2012), I could see an IM finish line. But in true Dimity fashion, I’d go to finish, not to read what number is on the clock when I do.

(And although I said I’ll never run another road marathon, I won’t eat those words entirely. I’ve heard that the running portion of Ironman is actually easier than an a straight-up marathon: you’ve already gone so far, another five or six hours of walking/running really doesn’t feel that bad. I’m not sure if I really believe that, but I’ll believe it for now.)

Kona is my dream race because it’s the pinnacle of the sport, but I know I’ll never race there. In order to pilot your wheels on the famed Queen K Highway, you either have to qualify by being a top age-grouper or enter a lottery, and given my luck lately, I think Ben would write me an apology note in cursive before I’d get in there. So if I entered Kona, that means I’d have to a) race really fast (not gonna happen) and b) do *two* Ironmans (definitely not gonna happen). One complete, kinda crazy test of my endurance will be plenty, and you’ll be sure to hear about it when I sign on the dotted line. (I’m thinking 2012, but I’ve got a little time to mull it over and, um, get stronger.)

The blade-light: shoes that mince PR's.

What’s your dream race? It could be a dream that you can make come true–oh, that’s sounding vaguely Disney-esque, no?–or one that truly just lives in your head for inspiration, like the Everest Marathon. (Which, btw, sounds like hell to me. Talk about dehydration-induced headaches.) Let us know and one random commenter will win a very sweet Ironman-flavored outfit from K-Swiss.

The shoes are the Blade-Light Run, neutral racing shoes that which weigh in at a waifish 9.3 ounces. (Julie Dibens, a pro British triathlete who has a shot at winning in Kona will be sporting an even svelter variation of them on Saturday. I love her blog since she gets flat “tyres” and calls a good race a “cracker.”)  Pairing with the blade runners is a awfully cute, but very functional running skirt and wicking, high-peformance raglan tee, both branded with the infamous MDot that signifies you go the distance. I doubt Julie will change into a skirt in transition two to finish in Kona, but we figured her skin-tight race suit probably wouldn’t be your outfit of choice when you hit the neighborhood streets at 5:30 a.m.

So where do you run in your dreams? Any race, any distance, any reason.

p.s. Three winners of the yurbuds giveaway will be notified on our Facebook page today. Like us if you haven’t, please; love it when the winners actually chime in on FB!