I was a man on a mission. The mission was to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. I had watched the old coverage of triathlon on Wide World of Sports in the late 80's and was fascinated by the struggle and joy I saw. I knew this was something I wanted to do yet I wasn't even sure what a triathlon really was all about. I thought it would be just a matter of entering a random race, qualifying, and going to Hawaii. Through this journey, I found that is the exact opposite of what it takes to get there. In the mid 90's I moved from Southern California to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There just weren't as many things to do here so I ended up taking up running (for all the wrong reasons...I'll talk about that some other day). I got hooked, did the marathon thing and decided to finally try this triathlon thing in 2000. I absolutely loved it. Forget that I couldn't swim. Forget that my bike weighed way too much for someone of my size. I was hooked on the competitive nature of it. I did a few that season before realizing it was way too expensive for my lifestyle. I backed off from it for the next 4 years. In 2004, I made the decision to sign up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2005. I did some triathlons along the way, completed Ironman Coeur d'Alene and was now committed. The cost piece of triathlon prevented me from doing another one in 2006 but that just gave me an extra year to work on what needed work to qualify for Hawaii. I again entered Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2007. I did well, finishing in 10:31, but didn’t qualify. I did Silverman, an iron distance triathlon, just outside of Las Vegas in the fall of 2007. I did well overall. More importantly, I did well mentally which gave me the belief that I could do anything. I went into 2008 with an attitude. Not an attitude of cockiness but extreme confidence. 2008 would be my year. I did a couple of half Ironman races in 2008 that showed I could be in the running for that elusive qualifying spot. Ironman Arizona was where I would make the attempt. This would be the last one for a while due some upcoming life changing events so I had to get it done now. The race went perfect. I executed everything exactly as planned, went 9:31, and qualified for the World Championships. That’s where I am today. Now I’m training to be competitive with the best in the world in my age group. It’s a huge challenge but one that I relish. Stay tuned for that journey and beyond……..