“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts,
while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

Heinrich Karl, better known as Henry Charles, Bukowski is not everybody’s cup of tea, or whatever you’re having yourself.

He was one of those writers you had to read when I was growing up, along with others, like Kerouac and Ginsberg and Castaneda. They were the literary equivalent to Dylan, Cohen, Joplin, Seeger and Guthrie. My first attempts to like them resulted in the same reaction I had when I puffed my first cigarette or drank my first glass of beer: awful. I kept trying. And the effort paid off. While I switched over from beer to red wine over the years. And I stopped smoking altogether. I ended up liking those poets and singers.

Over the last few weeks, I started to think that I should organise an IronMann Challenge. Pádraig liked the idea. I liked the Germanic sound of it. Then someone suggested to call it IronMonth, because this is the time it’ll take us to do the classic super triathlon distance: 2.4 mile swim (3.9K), 112 mile bike (180.2K), and 26.2 mile run (42.2K). Pádraig could walk the distance on the Lokomat, cycle on the MOTOmed, and get some help from his friends with the swimming. We’d be joined by the An Saol team and invite the rest of the world to join as well, all to the best of their abilities, all full of confidence, nobody left behind.

I’ll join too, each day doing the same amount of walking/running and cycling Pádraig will do, in terms of time effort. I would even try to come up with a creative solution to the 2.4 mile /  3.9 K swim, should the swimming pools not have opened by the time we’ll do this, say in April or May.

We would post daily updates and reports. Make it fun. Do it with friends and supporters around the world all to the best of their abilities. Share tips for recovery periods and good nutrition. And raise funds for the An Saol Foundation’s development of the Neurological Rehabilitation Centre in the process.

We know that we all need regular exercise and physical fitness. All of us, without exception. And we will demonstrate that all of us can have regular exercise, get fit and finish this extraordinary IronMonth. With a little help from our friends. We’ll leave nobody behind and we’ll give all we have to meet this challenge. As any other challenge we’ve met in our lives.

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
                                                        ― Charles Bukowski, Factotum

Let’s be stupid for a month. Full of confidence. We know we can make it.

Would you join us?