I’m training for Ironman New Zealand 2028, it's a bucket list race for me and was originally going to be my first full. I’m giving myself about 2 years since I’m a busy dad of two.
Lately I’ve been debating whether I should do a full Ironman beforehand. I could do Ironman California in October, which would be about 5 months before NZ.
Part of me really wanted NZ to be my first for the experience, but another part of me is wondering if doing one beforehand would help me be more prepared (especially mentally) and reduce the risk of things going sideways on race day.
For context, I’ll be doing a few Olympic tris and at least one 70.3 leading up to it.
Curious how others approached this, especially if your first Ironman was a destination race.
Did you wish you had done one beforehand, or were you glad you didn’t and all was fine?