Checking in from the Lake

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since I put something together on here.  The past couple of months since getting back to the East coast have flown by.  During this time a lot has happened for me.  A lot of really good things, opportunities and people.  I expected my home town to be much the same as I knew it when I was in high school and college…but things have changed, people have changed, yet the beauty hasn’t.  I can’t explain why because I was really only gone from the area for about 8 months during the winter and spring months but that time away has really shown me how great the Finger Lakes area and in specific the Keuka Lake area is.

It’s a place that I took for granted for a long time and now i’ve come to realize that I am happy here.  My family is nearby and fresh faces can be found in town, along with many familiar ones of course.  When living in a small town there can be stagnant periods of time where it feels as if nothing is changing.  The people are all the same ones you grew up with and it feels stale.  However, I am not getting that feeling here anymore.  Maybe it is the fact that my perspective on things has changed…as recently as the last few months.  Either way, I’ve come to the realization that I need to keep moving forward in my life.  I have poured myself into my interests like triathlon over the last few years as a way to block out the negatives in life and avoid the reality, which is that things change and there are different paths to be taken and different ways to achieve happiness.

The next couple of months will see the culmination of almost 3 years hard work.  Triathlon has been central to my life since the fall of 2009.  Since that fall I can’t remember a single day when I haven’t trained (or not trained because it was a “recovery day”).  All those days were accounted for and if you went to my garmin connect site or training peaks you would see that something was accomplished each and every day.  I am lucky in the sense that good things came quick for me.  Some people spend many many years trying to attain what they want.  Well what I wanted out of this sport at the very beginning was to race in Hawaii at the World Championships because that meant “you did it” and provided some validation to all the hours I spent training and separating myself from a social life (I am not the type of person who is good at or wants to expend the energy juggling the two, for me in everything I have ever done it is all or nothing and all my energy is directed at a sole purpose.  100% all the time, every time; that mentality is changing as I come to realize what I really want in life)…the ironman in Hawaii was this thing that only the really good people got to do and that along with the fact that I only knew 2-3 people who had ever done it meant that I must achieve this.  This is the mind set you have when with a one track mind.  Well from day one before I had any business thinking this way…my mind was set on going to Kona.  It was as simple as that.  I eagerly thought it would happen in the first year at IMFL.  However, I was simply not ready.  I needed more time.  So after that race I committed myself to triathlon and the lifestyle it took to be a racer that qualified for Kona.  So 365 days later I went back to IMFL and won my AG, taking my slot to Kona.  Since this was last November and the race is this coming October I have had a lot of time to train…and think about the race.  During this time I left my job as a CPA, moved to Portland, OR and subsequently moved back East again.  It can be summed up that simply A LOT HAS CHANGED in a year.  If nothing else when I left for Portland it put into motion change. That change is continuing to evolve and I feel like I am getting closer to finding the next endeavor.

So the next two months will be my reward.  I will enjoy the opportunity because it is all I can do.  Without the help and support of my family this wouldn’t be possible.  My parents are simply the two best people in my world.  I don’t know why they love to see me play sports (they always have) but they do…enough so that they without hesitation gave the full speed ahead on Hawaii after I qualified.  I can’t foot that bill and most likely won’t be able to for a little while.  So this is my year…this is my one shot to enjoy the sport at a place where the world comes to celebrate it.  I am extremely grateful for the opportunity and won’t take it for granted.  With that said, I am not going to Kona to “just enjoy the experience”.  While I hope I enjoy my time on the island, I am still going into the race with a goal of performing at my peak.  Having known I was going to race in Hawaii since last November, it has given me the chance to build my whole season around it and put in the required training to race at my full capability.  With that said things happen…things change, but what really matters is that I will be physically and mentally ready for whatever is thrown at me.  Now the trick is to translate that into the rest of my life.

Next Up: Timberman 70.3 (8/19), Vegas 70.3 (9/9) and IM Hawaii (10/13)