In the beginning...

A million years ago when I was 19, I was much more fit than I am today. Of course, that was ten years and two kids ago! Anyway, my big idea when I was 19 was to someday enter the Ironman Triathlon. Insane, I know. It seemed SO exciting! Competing with all those people for a tiny amount of glory just for being able to say "I finished the Ironman". Can't you just imagine it? Crossing the finish line with my family waiting for me, I'm barely winded and being congratulated by everyone around me for this amazing accomplishment! Like many ideas that came to my mind at the age of 19, this one too fairly quickly faded from my brain and I continued on with my life. Every once in a while something would remind me of my dream to compete in the Ironman, but like every busy mom, the amount of time it would take to train seemed so daunting that I would push it out of my mind once again.

Call it a midlife crisis (Hey! I'll be 30 in August!), but my insanity has returned and my dream to compete in the Ironman is alive and kicking! Lucky for me, I just happened to marry a certified personal trainer (apparently you have to do more than just marry one to be fit) who also loves to bike. So my wonderful husband, Josh, will be my coach. Again, lucky for me, Josh's boss happens to be a swimming coach. I have all my bases covered right? Not so. There is so much preparation that comes with just beginning to train for one of these things. I have to get a bike, a helmet, bike shoes, swimsuit (possibly my worst nightmare), running shoes, training clothes (apparently it's not efficient to run in jammie pants) and squeeze time out of my day of work, school, kids and wife-ing to train.

After having done some research, I have found out that you can't just ENTER the Ironman. You have to EARN your way into it. You have to prove that you have the stuff to bust out a 2.4 mi open water swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mi run. You have to compete in an Ironman Qualifying event and trust me, there aren't a whole lot of those! If you place in the top THREE of your age group you get a spot. They also have a lottery system which I haven't totally figured out yet.

Now I'm not totally delusional, I've never done a triathlon and don't even know if I'm cut out for it. So to begin my quest, Josh and I are entering a Try-A-Tri. This is a tiny, baby, mini triathlon that will let me test the waters of the triathlon world and see what I think. I will be swimming a quarter mile, biking 13 miles and running 3.1 miles. Don't laugh, a girl has to start somewhere! The best female time for my age group last year was 1 hr and 16 mins. I don't think I will come even close to that, so I also checked out the last person of EVERYONE in the race to cross the finish line, that was 2 hrs and 46 mins. My only goal is to finish the tri and hopefully not be the dead last person to finish. However, if that should be my fate, I will greet it with open arms. I currently have a little over five months to train for this and although the task that is laid before me seems near impossible I have a little faith in myself and alot of faith in the people supporting me!

I'm incredibly lucky that Josh is so supportive of this and willing to train with me and even enter the triathlons with me. If he wasn't, this would all be just a crazy pipe dream.

And thus my trek begins.