Hey good afternoon, this is Frank Cardia and I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day to check out this blog. Well just about a year ago I did an Ironman triathlon in Panama City Beach, Florida and then the very next day I flew up to New Jersey and did the NYC Marathon. I have done over 35 different types of triathlons and road races, and they all went off extremely smooth. But these two struck up alot of controversy. It can all be seen at finmanchallenge.com. To sum it all up, basically on my way back into the water to begin my second loop, I heard a lady let out a yell and then noticed a her looking at something in the water. I went over to see what it was and at first I thought it was a fish. I kicked at it and then realized that it was not a fish but a pair of fins. I saw a swim offical sitting about 20-30 feet out on a Seadoo and held it up to let him see it. Long story short , as he was moving in towards me, I was running out towards him. I tossed the fins over to him and was going to do my second loop. He yelled and so I stopped and walkded over by him, and I proceded to explain what just took place.
Now theres hundreds of people on the shore taking pictures during this event. A friend of mine got some pics of me with the fins and me talking to the swim offical and he began to send them to other friends through email. So like an internet brush fire, I was quickly being accused of swimming with fins and cheating the race. Now HERES the ironic part.... I've done the Ironman Triathlon 4 times and this was the WORST swim that I ever had and I mean the WORST by far. Infact it was one of the worst swim times I had in just about any race if you actually broker down my swim time per 100 yards. So at first I was like this is so comical, I'm actually being accused of cheating and yet I had my worse swim time in 3 1/2 years of doing this. You would think, the more you do it the faster you would get, right ?
Second, I did the NYC Marathon,,,,, alot more controversy. People had a tough time believing I actually did it because 1.- its too too grueling on the body to do an Ironman and then the very next morning do a full Marathon. And 2.- Everybody said its impossible to get to the NY area in time to even do the NYC Marathon. Well again, all you gotta do is go to finmanchallenge.com and you'll see exactly how I DID DO IT. And I did the whole thing with a friend of mine. Literally from step one to the very end when we crossed the finish line together in 5hrs 17 minutes.
So what I've done is thrown out a challenge. There are many people that know I did do both events. They know my level of endurance and they know my level of commitment to finishing a race, but there are many that think I didnt do either of these races...( or I should say, they think I cheated them ) and they believe theres no way that I could physically endure the pain of both of these races. So, I figured what better way then do it all over again --- but, ONLY BETTER.
Instead of doing an Ironman then a marathon the very next morning... I'm going to do a full marathon (26.2 miles) on Saturday, then do a Full Ironman ( 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run )on Sunday, and then I'll do another full Marathon (26.2 miles) on Monday. Its going to take place Nov 21st, 22nd and 23rd in Arizona. This way all they nay sayers will realize and understand its not impossible for Frank Cardia to complete an Ironman and then a Marathon and I didnt and wouldnt need to cheat these races. And to make it more intersting...... I will beat my swim time from Ironman in Florida as well.
Trust me I know that there will always be more names on the results page ahead of Frank Cardia. And I am very very clear with everyone, that I am as slow as can be. But for me this hasnt been about speed- Its been about how far I could push myselft. So I am offering the finman challenge to anyone that thinks they could handle it... And if you miss this years challenge, trust me, there are going to be many many more to come.
All my best and train hard
Frank Cardia
