Can’t ride a bike, still IRONMAN wannabe

Dear Stranger,
first of all let me thank you for visiting this page!

My name is Szabolcs Harsági, I'm a 22 years old software engineer student from Budapest, Hungary.

For my entire life I was like a chubby potato but you couldn't really tell because of my height (186 cm / 6 feet 1.22 inches). Aaand my whole life changed in 2017, I realised that the path I took was wrong.

After 3 "wake-up calls" (it's a terminology in psychology (I LOVE psychology.) which describes an event as if "it opened your eyes") I decided that I will take the challenges I ever wanted. I WILL step out of my comfort zone. The journey started with some salsa dancing (love the latin culture, I actually registered for a quiz show (I didn't make it into the live sadly) just so I can travel through South America (+Mexico): Chile as starting point, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico (by flight) as the final destination...) But somehow I was still afraid of me being the weakest link so didn't attend races that needed actual physical strength...

This changed in 2018. On the 8th of January my transformation began. 3 times CrossFit (or similar to that), 2 times some high intensity training and once a week I took boxing classes. My friends consider me to be positive, inspirational and crazy... I want others to make their very best efforts. If you believe that its possible then it WILL BE possible. The only limiting factor is your own disbelief.

Not much time later I was already signed up for my first Spartan Race event. The weeks went by and I saw a YouTube video in which a guy ran a full marathon with no training. I was on fire: I WANT TO DO THIS AS WELL. I looked up my opportunities and there was a half marathon in 2 weeks. But here's the catch: I wasn't used to running long distances and the Spartan Sprint event was the day before this half marathon. Someone with normal mindset would say: No, you won't be able to run 21 km (13 mi 192½ yd) with no proper running background especially after a SR (I wasn't able to do ONE pull-up).

I knew this was a bad idea. I knew this will hurt so much. And? Mental strength over physical.

Here's a picture of me finishing the SR. You can tell that it was not a walk in the park..:D

The next day I completed my first half marathon. Also here's an other picture of me after the finish.

After that weekend I barely could walk. Everything hurt badly but I was happy. I just made my dreams come true: I didn't give up and I succeeded. And the most important: I fell in love. I was hungry for more, so I signed up for the next Spartan Race and the next half marathon. (Goal for this year: 3 SR, 4 half marathons and 1 full marathon)

I felt like anything is possible. I had an English teacher who completed an IRONMAN. You already can know what went through my mind. It became not just a goal rather than a reality for me. (Although I can't ride a bike and don't even have one.. But hey, if challenges were easy, no one would take them seriously.)

And we finally arrived to the main reason why I'm here. Sadly I can't afford it (costs over 2000 USD and the student job I have doesn't pay that much). I came up with the idea of reaching out to companies and tell them my story (I'm a believer but this idea sank since they don't grant personal requests..).

So I got here. I know, why would anyone donate to a random dude from a random country JUST so he can participate in an IRONMAN. Honestly I have no idea. Maybe "Why not?". I had a friend who didn't think someone will pick us up (when we went to a music festival). After 7 minutes of holding a cardboard with our destination, a man and his girlfriend stopped. It was beyond his (my friend's) depth. We did it.

I don't know how successful will this campaign be but if we make it, I would like to put every donators name on a shirt and would like to wear that while racing. Also planning on making a blog about this whole journey so one day someone finds it and gets so motivated that he signs up for a similar event..:)

Ps.1.: My dream is to compete in Cozumel, Mexico (as i mentioned I love the culture and started to learn Spanish as well).
Ps.2.: I set a 1000 USD goal even though it costs more than that (about 2000 USD) because I just simply can't let it be more
Ps.3.: I took the Swim-Ride-Run image from this website: http://adamoconnortri.com/what-i-do/
Ps.4.: As William Butler Yeats once said: "There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met."

You made it to the end!

Thank you for taking your time, have a nice day!