From a Fall in the Mall to a Run in the Sun: One Journey to Ironman Triathlon

Abstract

This autoethnographic account describes my personal leisure journey through an Ironman triathlon. The purpose of this paper is to highlight three themes that shed light on events like the Ironman as a leisure experience. The first theme reveals personal predispositions and the roles they play in deciding what constitutes leisure. The second theme discusses social or support networks within and around the Ironman experience. Third, the roles of key encounters are discussed as a way to make sense of what I was doing and how I was feeling. My Ironman experience represents an effort to escape the ordinary within defined, but extreme, limits. It is part of a larger search for complexity and, most of all, balance.

Keywords:

• Ironman
• triathlon
• social world
• flow experience
• community
• serious leisure

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank both Diana Parry and Corey Johnson, guest editors of this special issue, for their valuable insight and assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.