Chasing a Dream

When I was a child, I was very athletic. I played baseball, street hockey, rode my bike - EVERYWHERE, whiffle ball, pickle, football (tackle without equipment), and later in High School with equipment. I ran, I swam, I was outside from the time I got home from school and did my homework to dinner time, and then after dinner until it was time to come in and go to bed.

Video games did not exist. In fact my family did not even have cable TV - yep we had rabbit ears and an antenna on the roof. My parents never ever let me play or stay in the house....the one good thing was that we had a massive back yard....and as a kid - we used every inch of it.

As I grew up, things began to change. I went to High School and played football and hockey. But as I got older, I needed to take on more responsibilities. I needed to get summer jobs, and pay for gas for my car, and I began to have a social life - more specifically GIRLS....so as a result exercise diminished. Then college came and I found a renewed interest in exercise, specifically weight lifting.

Then like most other people, reality set in and I was put into the working world. Long days for little money. Life evolved into work and social life....with no time for exercise...in reality - It was just a whole lot easier and convenient to NOT exercise than it was to do it.  And also like many people in this position, I ended up gaining weight. Not much at first, it was gradual, but I was packing it on as they say.

This blog however, is not about weight loss or how I changed my life - You can read about that in my other Blog - Check it out by clicking the link on the right. This blog is about me chasing a dream. Ever since those days when I was younger there has always been 1 sport that I have always wanted to try (no pun intended)  - and that was a Triathlon.

So on June 1, 2014 I will be competing in my first ever Triathlon - The Greendale Y Triathlon in Worcester, MA. The Triathlon is a Sprint Distance event with a 1/2 mile swim, 16.5 mile bike, and a 2.5 mile run. As I chase my dream, I will use this blog to capture my training trials and tribulations. I will write about pretty much anything and everything that I encounter.....from nutrition, to swimming, to biking, to running, to gear, and everything else in between.

So with this being my first post, I would like to share a quote that I came across many years ago from Friedrich Nietzsche :

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

I will be using this quote as motivation to help me finish my Triathlon (while I will be competing with other participants, I will be doing so with one goal in mind - to finish - If all goes well, there will be future triathlons where I will hopefully, as the quote says,  "climb higher".