10 IMs in 10 days, need your thoughts...
I did my first IM last summer at IMLou 2011 (11:56:27). I did it as a totally rediculus off-the-wall event to try to raise money for my charity ReserveAid (www.reserveaid.org). I convinced 13 other people to do their 1st IM with me there to raise money for the troops and we ended up breaking our goal of $1,000 per mile by raising just over $200k in total. Team ReserveAid 2.0 is to do IMNYC in 2012 and as of now we have 33 people doing the race and we have even loftier fundraising goals! $2,000 per mile is a mere $281,2000 so we're gonna start there!
So I read this crazy story about the high school classmate of one of the Team ReserveAid members who did 7 IMs in 7 days! http://achievetheimpossibleblog.com...ys-in-uae/
We got to talking and me and another guy thought of a new challenge and I wanted to see what the crazy people in da Haus thought about whether it is possible or not. If I can get a committed pledges of $10 million to Reserve Aid, me and a friend would do 10 Ironmans (distances anyways) in 10 consecutive days. Ideas that were thrown around were to do them in 10 different states. Maybe even make them end at say IMNYC 2013 and do that as the 10th race. Maybe we start at the Flight 93 memorial in Central PA and work our way to the Pentagon in DC, then back up to finish in NY? Maybe we work our way across the West Coast and do something like the 9th day in California, then hop on a plane and sleep on the way to Kona to do the 10th leg there. Still just brainstorming here...
Is this possible? I don't know. Just 2 years ago, I would have thought that doing a single Ironman was impossible. We would need a whole support crew and some type of crazy training. I still have a 60+ hour a week job (70 if you count commuting) and that will not change. After IMLou, I couldn't even walk for several days. But I have to believe this is posibble, right...? I think my wife would kill me if she found out I was even thinking about this... Anyone want to join me if I can pull off the logistics? 'm not afraid of finishing, I'm afraid I won't get to the start because of not reaching my fundraising goal, but if you dream big, anything is possible ...right?
Does anybody know Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, or any other billionaire I can have a meeting with to get a very large starting donation?
Would love your thoughts/opinions... And yes, I am serious.
Comments
It would be amazing, and I'm sure people in the Haus would love "following" you! It's always good to dream big. It's what got us here in the first place
Have you heard of the Epic 5 and the Ultraman? You'd be the best of the craziest--I mean best!
There is a sorta local who's done the deca a few times....she is more than a little crazy in the head, and not really in a good way
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I would think you'd want to do it one place to minimize logistics. Pretty sure you don't want to be doing anything other than SBR, eat, drink, sleep. Any form of movement to other locations would come at a huge recovery cost (as if you can recover during something like that
).
Swim around Manhattan, then do all the bike and run in Central Park?
I know someone who has done the Deca. Basically he said the trick is that you just go at a much much reduced rate than your typical IM. So for an IM finisher who is typically in the 11-hour mark, their Deca times will be around 14. You are not aiming for an optimal performance in any of your IM days. In that sense, it's like 10 really long training days. You eat a ton and sleep for 10 hours and just do it again the next day.
Let's be very clear about something, I am NOT one of those Ultra guys. The 4 longest runs of my life were in order: IMLou-26.2mi, RR1-17mi, RR2-16mi, Patriot Half-13.1mi. I'm 210lbs and couldn't walk for days after IMLou. When I signed up for my very first Olympic tri (NYC 2010) I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the 10k at the end. I am not crazy (says me...). BUT, to raise an EPIC amount of money for a cause I believe in I think it takes an EPIC event. A yr ago, I thought epic meant $140,600 for 140.6 miles, and quite frankly most people I knew said I was crazy then. It sounds like this would be possible, but will be much more of a mental game on top of the monstrous physical challenge.
I even thought maybe I convince 9 people to do it (I already have 4 of us who said we would do it) and we do 11 IMs... to stick with a 9-11 theme considering it is a Military Charity. Or we get 11 people to do it and do 9 IMs... Just really brainstorming here. I would also invite others to join us for some of the days or some of the legs. Maybe we allow ourselves to draft on the bike and have pacers that will run with us. Maybe the Local ENer's would support some legs.
I know the logistics would be easier to do all in one spot, but would be much more interesting to hop from spot to spot accross the country. If I'm in an RV after like day two I'm sure I would immediately pass out while the crew got me to the next location. Maybe even get a local person (ENer maybe) to help me map out an easyish course in each state across the country. Swim down river somewhere when possible and have flatish rides and runs. Would love to have the last leg in Kona (might be my only way to ever race there...).
$10,000,000 is an epic sum to raise, requiring an epic event to justify it. A different way to approach the "10 in 10" construct might be to do a single event, strung out over 10 days. Specifically, swim 24 miles on day one, then on day two, start a 1,120 mile bike ride RAAM-style, maybe over 4 days. Finally, spend five days running 52.2 each day (a marathon each morning and evening). This MIGHT provide both more rest in the evenings, and ease the logistics a bit. Meaning you don't have to worry about the admin details of swimming, biking, AND running every day, just one set of issues at a time.
Fund-raising? Wow, even if you could find people to commit to $10/person/day ($1,000), you'd still need 10,000 of them! Some corporate tie-ins would be a must, it seems.
Personally, I can't imagine doing these three things strung together, much less 10 IMs in 10 days. But if the spirit is willing, the mind will find a way, is my belief.
In my experience, no matter what BatShitCrazy thing you can think of, there's always someone whackjob who has/is willing/is planning to do 10x your BatShitCrazy. In this case 5x