A look back at 2010

2010 was the year I...
   - got a new bike! (Felt ZW 5 carbon road bike)
   - finally did the full Savageman Oly (no relay)
   - ran my fastest marathon yet (Shamrock)
   - had my first DNF (Musselman 70.3)
   - did my fastest Oly swim yet (Savageman)
   - finished my masters degree at Georgetown (woohoo!)
   - traveled to Nova Scotia
   - added a second beagle to the family :)
   - broke a toe and fractured an arm :/
   - signed on to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2011
   - launched Triathletes Hiking Kilimanjaro with an awesome friend and raised more than $12,000 for Africa's AIDS orphans

2010 Races:
January - JFK 13.1 
March - Shamrock 26.2
April - Rumpus in Bumpass Oly
May - Kinetic Aqua Bike 70.3
June - DC Tri Oly
July  - Musselman 70.3...missed the bike cut off by 4 minutes! Would've made it with 28 seconds to spare if the race had started on time.
August - Run Amuck mud race, Luray Oly
September - Savageman Oly
October - Warrior Dash mud fest - Craziest Frickin' Day of My Life!

Bring on 2011!!

Taking the First Step

Crazy me. I signed up for Ironman Arizona! The first question is....why? Why would anyone want to put themselves through a grueling year's worth of training, in all kinds of weather, for one day of suffering through a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run? All of that, plus the risk of not making it to the finish line by the stroke of midnight.

Well....it's complicated. Perhaps over the course of the next 300-something days I'll be able to explain it. But the surface answer is that I have a big birthday coming up in 2011 and it warrants a big challenge. My original plan was to hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro that week, but that plan changed when I got an offer to make the trek with a group of people in February (more about that in future blog posts). So the question then became, what will I do for my birthday, which isn't until December? Ironman Arizona is just a couple of weeks before....and it's definitely a huge challenge, so IMAZ it is!