About Me

It all began with a journey.

Becoming An Ironman.  That was the goal when I started this blog back in 2010.  I had just come fresh off my first season of racing and had the rather overly sized goal of doing an Ironman some day.  I had never run a 5k before my first sprint triathlon, so somehow I thought it related to being able to do an Ironman.  Haha  How wrong I was!

But it's been a journey no matter how you phrase it.

I started off a Ph.D. student in biomedical sciences who had given up sports and fitness for lab chemicals and lab mice (I never liked rats) and look at me now.  I quit my program, became a fitness coach, got certified as a running coach, and am training for Ironman and ultramarathons!  Oh how life changes!


Here's the long story...

I grew up a swimmer in upstate NY.  I was in the pool at six weeks old and started with a competitive team when I was 9 years old.  I eat, slept, and breathed swimming.  It was my life.  Unfortunately, I hit a plateau in my sophomore year, but never stopped enjoying the pool.

In college, found out that swimming and science don't mix, so I gave up swimming and spent time with my other love, science.  Somehow, it never bothered me to let the pool go.  I graduated college and followed the rest of my classmates to Ph.D. programs.  Why not, right?  Research sounds fun.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life and I was pretty good at school.

Nearly two years into my Ph.D., I got roped into doing a sprint triathlon.  I had always wanted to try triathlons as a kid, but there weren’t any where I grew up.  On June 17th, 2010, I competed in my first sprint triathlon.  I still remember crossing the finish line and thinking "Hold on!  I just ran a 5k.  I didn't think I could do that.  Cool!" 

I had never been a fan of running in high school.  I laughed at the idea of running track and couldn't imagine running cross country.  Then without even thinking about it, I ran a full 5k at my first triathlon.  At that point, I had to stop and re-evaluate.  Maybe running wasn't so bad.  If I could do a 5k, could I run a 10k?  After three more sprints, I signed up for my first Olympic triathlon.  Seven days after my first Oly, I turned around and did a second.  I started thinking "maybe I can do a lot more than I thought."

At that point I was hooked.  I had a taste of what my body could do and I've never looked back.  In order to get better at triathlon, I did my first half marathon and became addicted to running.  Then came my first half ironman, marathon, and finally the Ironman.  But now what?

I've got a lot of PRs to trim down, but at this point I'm still quite curious how far I can push my body.  2013 was my first ultramarathon.  2014 will be focused on triathlon.  Who knows what 2015 will bring!

As I said before, it all began with a journey.  Now the journey continues, but to where I can't say.

Thank you for joining me.  Buckle your seat belts.  This could get bumpy.


EDIT:
Find additional information in these blog entries:
Recap & Update of "Why I'm Here". (Feb 18th, 2011)
Non-Athletic Biography of Me. (Feb. 23rd, 2011)