Living life with intent

Why train, why race, why Ironman? I've excepted that this goal is important to me, even though I can not nail down an exact reason. Below is the introduction from a pod cast, Escape Pod. It's a pod cast of science fiction short stories. If you enjoy the genre, I highly recommend it. At the beginning of each pod cast the host gives an intro. The intro below is for a story of a small robot that is sent on a trip through a rain forest and up a mountain to send a rescue signal (I know, sounds corny, but most sci-fi plots do sound a little corny)

"We have a powerful story for you this week by Ken Sholes. Featuring a very unlikely protagonists and another variation on the "hero's journey'. I don't think I need to talk much about what the hero's journey means. Joseph Campbell's book been around for almost 60 years. And by now most people who've ever read mythology know about this pattern. Of receiving the quest, and the long road with many trials, and coming back to the ordinary world. Reading this week's story got me wondering, why is this concept so powerful? Why is it that stories of long miserable travels, with dangers and ordeals and pain, appeal so strongly to almost everyone in every culture through out history? I have a spot theory about this. And that's that most of us never leave our homes. Bare with me here, I don't mean that no one travels, people do all the time, but for most of us, the more we travel the more mundane it becomes. And we carry all the accumulated stuff from home with us in our heads. We are not experiencing the fantastic, perceiving different worlds and challenges around us, we're just changing location. And whether we are at home or somewhere else, how many of us approach our days, or any part of a day, with goals, or vision, or purpose? We may live repetitive lives or chaotic lives, but very few of us live intentional lives. We mostly just do whatever gets us to the next day. So when we encounter stories about people leaving their homes and facing dramatic risks in pursuit of goals and vision. I don't think it's just excitement that compels us so much. I think some of it is jealously. These are things most of us could do, on some scale, in some context to really feel alive, but we don't. Hearing that some one is doing them, and hearing that some one portrayed as being better than us, might make us feel a little better about staying at home. But should it? It's what I'm starting to think about. "

After listening to this, I am wondering if ironman is my attempt to live an intentional life (at least on some scale)......