For a long, long time

Greetings and Salutations!

Welcome to the beginning, or at least this particular beginning, of my road. You may have wandered over here from one of those many tri-blogs that fill our lunch and coffee breaks (hi guys!), or maybe you saw the website on a tee-shirt. Perhaps you’re a complete stranger or maybe a future companion toeing the IM line next year. A family member or colleague, neighbor or lifelong friend. Here’s to first posts! Horrah!

You see, I’m about to depart.

Yeah, of course I’m actually staying right here in the big D’Town, and I’m still commuting down 322 and savagely drinking my Wawa coffee along the way. But something is about to not-so-subtly change.

This week I accepted a personal challenge – to train for and compete in an Ironman in 2007 and Wisconsin is my favorite flavor, thank you! A race, a distance, and a process that has been a slowburning fire in my belly for months now. Nagging, persistent, and doggedly persuasive. And I finally was at a loss for good excuses, so here we are.

For those who know me tangentally from other blogs, you have had a glimpse at my story. For now, suffice it to say that Ironman comes at a beginning point in my personal and emotional life – the beginning of enjoying hard earned strength, the beginning of reliability and integrity, the beginning of commitment and reward. But it’s also part of the continuum of a larger picture – of a flawed adult with stubborn good intentions, much she feels she needs to repair and honor, and a honest compulsion to make even the smallest difference in another's life.

So, quit blathering and get to the point already!

What am I doing? Perhaps that’s the easiest question to answer. I’m beginning a yearlong process of training my physical body to go great distances and my spirit to redefine its limitations. I’m using my journey and this blog to hopefully inspire others, and ask them, “What will it take to step out of your comfort zone? What will it take for you to redefine what makes you possible? What are you willing to miss out on by skipping the chance?” I hope that my process, this journey, can help others fill in the blank of "I am ___." Triathlon gave me the tools to fill that blank in for myself. Perhaps it will for others.

How am I going to do this? That answer is slowly getting clearer. I’m laying all my goals out and finding the most realistic way to reach them without losing touch with the point. I am connected every day with people who make the extraordinary possible. I have good teachers. I am listening to them.

But, the most interesting question – I think – is *why* am I doing this. Why do I choose this challenge? Why now? What do I need from it. How do I expect to be rewarded and disappointed? Why at all?

These answers, I do not know yet. But I’m sure that they will be worked out on these pages at some point this year, in some fashion, and likely with some help.

So, I've taken the plunge and, even though I have no idea idea where this will all lead, I am completely invested in the journey. Whatever this next year – this Ironman Year – has to dish out, I’m there. Count me in. Come and get me – I’m waiting.

I've been waiting for this for a long, long time.