July 5th, 2014
When did this journey begin? Two weeks ago, I started a fantastic journey of a lifetime to compete in my second Ironman triathlon in Idaho. I set off from Penfield, New York to travel more than 5,000 miles in 14 days. My goal was to experience this country as I never had before!
Wait. Scratch that. Three years ago, my Idaho journey actually started in 2011 while training for my first Ironman in Lake Placid, New York. I trained for nine months, but couldn't run for the last two of them due to injury. While I finished the race, I was somewhat disappointed in my results and set a goal to do that again, differently.
Hmm. Wait. When did my triathlon 'career' actually start? Six years ago, while getting ready for the Rochester Marathon, I sustained an injury I suspected was a stress fracture in my hip, and bought a used road bike for recovery. I thought, this isn't so bad. It's fun to cover 16 miles in an hour instead of 7 or 8. I can actually GO places on a bike. And I got the idea that it was time to try something new...a triathlon. So that following spring I did my first triathlon. Swimming in a pool, riding a steel frame bike that was too small for me, and struggling for the first time on a run because my legs were tired from riding the hills of Pittsford.
But really, it started before that. When did I start running? When it was apparent that I was no good at anything else. As an accident prone, awkward teenager-in-waiting, I failed to make the volleyball team in junior high. Good thing, too. Running was perfect for me. The only thing I needed to keep track of was my feet. No balls, no bats, just my feet. And that was enough. Enough to free me from feeling gangly and out of sorts. I was taller than most of the boys in my grade. I was definitely a dork. I probably still am, technically. But I started running track and found that I was good enough at something. And it didn't matter that I was goofy looking. I just needed to run around in circles.
One more time. I didn't wait until junior high to start. I ran playing tag with my friends. I ran after my dog. Ran to catch a snake or a mouse in the fields behind my house. I was born to run.
We were all born to run. That's what the book says, right? To catch our food, to run from predators... In our modern times, we run to work off our food, we run from our internal demons. It's the simplest of sports. You can put a pair of shoes on and step our your front door and run ten steps, ten miles, or ten hours. If you run, you are a runner. You don't have to run fast to feel the effort and release of a good run.
So, it began a long time ago, this journey to Idaho. It's all part of the story. And if anyone is still reading, you're probably part of the story, too. I thought it was time to start sharing the stories from this point forward and backward. I'll start with the recap of my journey as soon as I'm done with it. Tomorrow I head home (today I'm in Indiana) with a new dog (for two years), without my children (for two weeks), and with a new sense of adventure (hopefully for the rest of my life!).
