the beginning

I remember being 16 years old. I was a lifeguard at the town pool. There was a family that regularly came down. They were so fit—like the type of people you just stare at and dream about how you wished you looked as good as they did. Six pack abs…toned arms…even the kids were ripped. As it turned out, they were triathletes. There began my secret little dream of one day doing a triathlon and magically being transformed into a super athlete….far fetched dreams as I had never competitively ran, cycled, or swam. That dream never left me. Ironically enough, I was camping along the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon in December 2005. Out of nowhere trots a couple from Long Island! Of all places!! We hiked out together and vowed to meet up back in New York upon our return. Sure enough, we did….and a friend of theirs that joined us that night turned out to be a triathlete!! Kindly, he gave me the email address of a local gal in NY that was interested in doing some coaching. I emailed her and the rest was history! I began training for my first race in March 2006. I ran my first timed mile at the Central Park reservoir in something like 10 minutes. UGH! I did my first duathlon in April. It was a 2 mile run, 8 mile bike, 2 mile run. I finished and almost died. I think it took me something like 19 minutes to run 2 miles! I will NEVER forget what my legs felt like trying to run after biking 8 miles….JELLO!!! As a side note—I stopped working with my initial coach as she had other commitments to attend to. I worked with a team…but that didn’t work out either. In search of a new coach—I googled the “fit” guy from the pool. He turned out to be a former pro and a 2x podium finisher in his age group in Kona!! I emailed him my request to be coached-- he generously accepted and coached me through Lake Placid! We have become great friends and I have fallen in love with his family. We just raced Clearwater 70.3 championships together and he WON his age group!! He’s a rock star. Funny thing is that he decided that he really didn’t have the time to coach me anymore—work, family, etc. That was just in time for the CKC to happen!! MAN OH MAN am I lucky with timing!!