I'm in Deep.

Well, to explain how I got here, I need to explain where I started... which was more recently than it seems.

Our city held a marathon about a month back. What's funny is I wasn't even awake for it. I think I slept until 1pm that day. But, when you work at a news station, these things tend to come up. One of our reporters even ran with a relay team.

So it got me to thinking. I've always had it in the back of my head that I wanted to run a marathon some day. But I always thought of it in a 'distant future' sort of way. Plus, ever since high school track, my knees and hips occasionally act like they belong to an 80 year old woman who is just 2 minutes away from her next hip fracture. So a marathon seemed far-fetched.

Somehow, the next logical step in my mind was to try a triathlon instead. There seemed no better time than the present. I am close to my heaviest weight ever, needed some motivation to get to the gym everyday, and was becoming generally bored with how I was spending my time here. Plus, I already had a decent base in biking, and as a child, I was on the swim team, so I figured-- no problem!

_____________________________________


It started out innocently enough. I went online for some advice as to what sort of training I should do. I learned a lot right away...

-There are different lengths for triathlons... AKA tiring; daunting; impossible; kill me now
-I would need to do brick training. (I had to google that seperately to figure it out.)
-My equipment sucks.
-Triathletes are really hardcore about their sport.
-Far more people complete the Ironman than I was aware. I always pictured that televised one in Hawaii... I thought that was the only one.

So the training began.

My biking wasn't bad, my swimming was mediocre at best, but my running was atrocious. I couldn't even jog for 5 minutes without stopping to hack up a lung. I thought to myself, But I did Cross Country! For 5 years! Apparently that doesn't guarantee anything.

_____________________________________


Just last week, while exploring the internet for any sign to tell me I wasn't going to absolutely die doing this, I stumbled across a blog written by a beginner triathlete. That blog led me to another blog... which led me to another... and another... and a world of blogging triathletes unfolded before me. A little weird, I thought, but inspirational nonetheless.

I loved reading their first few entries when they were just beginning. To see that mere years later, many of them had completed Ironman races was baffling.

Seeing all of their trials and pains and distances laid out on the screen made me feel like a wuss (especially because my first triathlon will be a super sprint!). But it was the first time I thought that there might be more after this. There might be a future in this. I'm HOPING to get hooked. I want to look back a year from now a laugh at myself. Stupid, silly, pudgy Kelly... so naive.

[PS: The past few days, I've been unhealthly obsessed with Steve in a Speedo. Extremely entertaining to read... not to mention that he's a Simpsons fan ("feels like I'm wearing nothin at all!"). Just one of the many blogs that inspired me to start my own. So, thanks!]