First Post

(Picture links in blue)

Since this is my first post, it's only necessary I start off by saying that I am truly blessed by God to have the opportunity to race and compete in the sport of Triathlon. My background in athletics is virtually none. I celebrated in high school when I broke a 10 minute mile. The first twinge of any "strenuous" activity came a few years ago when I picked up a surfboard and fell in love with the ocean. Shortly after I started surfing, I noticed that I'd beat a lot of people to waves and a competitiveness that had never been apparent started to emerge.

I don't really know where the passion for Triathlon first came from (probably because I wasn't sober, to be honest, when I decided to do one). At a party, some friends and I were joking around about doing a triathlon and I was the only one that actually followed through. After my first race, having only a month or two to prepare, I found out that I had some hidden athleticism that I never realized before. I finished pretty well in my division (Men's Collegiate). At this point I thought I'd actually try a little harder for my next race. I was improving at all three sports so rapidly I couldn't help but be overly excited. With the support of my parents, I was encouraged to keep pursuing Triathlon and pushing myself further. I'm extremely grateful for their (as well as my whole family and friends) support and encouragement. I ended up qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater Florida last November and had the best race of my life to date. Last season was a great eye opener for me in endurance sports. I'm learning more with every passing day and excited about the upcoming season because I'm injury free at the moment. At almost every race last year I had some knee/leg problem, so I'm excited to see how far I can push myself on healthy legs.

This season so far...

No thanks (or thanks) to sickness, I was forced to take a month or so off from training completely after Clearwater. It was kind of nice to take a little break but I've been back at it since mid January. So far this season I've done 3 smaller Collegiate sprint races to get my racing legs back and finished decently but nothing impressive (12th overall, 5th overall, & 12th overall). The problem with these shorter sprints is that I'm not really a sprinter.  The California Ironman 70.3 is less than 2 weeks away and I'm pretty stoked to do a 70.3 so close to home (Oceanside). Every Ironman 70.3 I've done has been in another state... so hopefully I can have a decent race without injuries holding me back. I have some really cool races lined up for this season... including: Collegiate Nationals, Wildflower, Ironman Hawaii 70.3, Vineman 70.3 (with a few smaller ones sprinkled around). So it should be a fun year! I'll try and update the blog before/after major races and keep it up to date.