This blog, and the perpetually under construction website it’s a part of, was set up as part of my political ambitions. I left those behind in the winter of 2009, and this has been dormant since then. My life has changed dramatically since then, and I’ve been thinking about getting the blog, at least, more active. So, I thought I would kick things off with an enhanced version of an article I was asked to write for the company I work for…hope you all enjoy, and good to be back to share some thoughts…
For many people, the competition of the sports fields when we were young was replaced by other demands as we age. But all too often, as our responsibilities increase, we set aside rigorous physical activity for demands of career, family and civic engagement.
In my case, I stopped riding my bike and started riding a desk. In my youth, I was a highly ranked cyclist, training at the Olympic Training Center and winning races all across the Midwest. But at a time when only one or two riders from every year would make a decent living racing bikes, I opted to pursue a career in the law. As I focused on my career, my health slowly suffered and my bike gathered dust. 
About two years ago, I had to end my immediate political ambitions. About 24 hours after my decision, my wife Lara—who was studying for her MBA at the time and could not afford many distractions—told me that I needed something new to occupy my time because I was annoying her with nothing to occupy my time. After thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided I would tackle a triathlon for the first time in my life.
Triathlon has an interesting history. It’s the youngest of the Olympic sports, and has a strong tie to the military. Details are sketchy on the first swim/bike/run triathlon, which was thought to have occurred in San Diego in 1974. But a couple years later, a debate broke out about which athlete was the most fit. Reportedly, US Navy Commander John Collins suggested settling the debate by combining the three toughest endurance events on Oahu at that time: the 2.4 mile Waikiki Roughwater Swim, the 115 mile Around-Oahu Bike Race (shortened to 112 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon. Of course—they didn’t realize that Around-Oahu was a two-day event, but that’s not an unreasonable distance for one-day bike races (and fairly short compared to many European Classics).
Thus, the Ironman was born. Of course, this was—and is—considered a supreme athletic test to manage all three distances in the space of a single day. So, as the sport grew from a foothold of ultra-endurance fanatics, shorter races were introduced in the International (or Olympic) distance of .9mile/1.5 kilometer swim, 25mi/40k bike and 6.2mi/10k run and shorter distances called ‘sprints.’ But don’t let the name fool you—the sprints have swims of around a half-mile, biking for up to 20 miles and runs that are generally between 5 and 8 kilometers.
I wasn’t planning on starting with an Ironman, of course. But the decision to do any length of triathlon was especially daunting. After all, if you drop out of the run or bike, you walk. But if you drop out of the swim…you drown, or have to be rescued. And I have never been a very strong swimmer. But I was determined, and found a coach to help me understand swim mechanics. Let me tell you, it pretty humiliating to have a coach swimming alongside you critiquing every freestyle stroke. Especially when she’s eight months pregnant. And doing the backstroke. But better than drowning. I think.
My first triathlon, I did want to quit in the swim. Did I mention that the swim start is a mass start in open water, so you have waves, people kicking and hitting you, and even some swimmers crawling over you and pushing you under to make their way forward? In my first tri, I got kicked a couple times, hit in the face with waves on two consecutive attempts to breathe, and started to panic. They told us that if this happened, to pull off the brightly covered swim cap we were each given and wave it in the air to attract the attention of a lifeguard. Of course, I don’t think they had ever tried to do this while drowning, and it proved quite impossible. So, I flipped onto my back, got my composure back, and finished the race. Ever since then, it hasn’t been quite downhill, but I have gotten comfortable doing long open-water swims without a wet-suit, and my times have been dropping.
This year, I competed in about ten different events. This year, I stepped up my goals and completed two half-Ironmans (1.2mi swim/56 mi bike/13.1 mi run) as well as the Duathlon (run/bike/run) Nationals, top-20 age group placings in two sprint races, and a 128 mile bike event with over 13,000 vertical feet of climbing over four mountain passes outside of Blacksburg, Va. It’s become incorporated into our family, with C-squared starting to go to races at two months old, and Lara and I trading off race days so one of us can watch C-squared one day and race the next. Next year, the goal is an Ironman distance race—probably November in Mexico. And now I’m getting back to the personal motto I had when I was younger: Mens sana in corpore sano (sound mind in a sound body).
Learning to swim was a challenge, but I still stand in awe of what Lara has accomplished in the sport. She did the Chicago International Triathlon, the largest in the world, when she was four months pregnant, and her first race after giving birth was three months afterwards. This year, she took third in the Luray International Distance race, and has proven to be a very tough competitor. Her personal motto is Why Not Try? I love that because of the different layers involved in three simple little words, and the action underlying it.
For us, making healthier decisions and a commitment to an athletic lifestyle has not always been easy, but definitely worth it. My weight has dropped from a high of 240 to 185 today, and the doctor says that I have completely changed around all of the areas of concern that he had. It’s given us a chance to really reconnect with something that makes us happy, relieves stress and allows us to see the world through new eyes. And most important, it’s setting a good example for our child. Which in the end was the most important demand of all.
