Why?

To the outsider, I am pretty athletic. Healthy, golf, snowboard, yoga, pretty comfortable at the gym, basic exposure to many sports (playing tennis with Connie in the summer of 03?, going to the ice rink with my dad growing up, a few months of martial arts here and there) and always willing to try new sporty things (waiting for Rachel G to introduce me to the Bar Method).

But I never felt like an athlete. I never competed, never won trophies, and haven't had to face-off with anyone on a court or race. The only race I ever did was a 5K Revlon Run/Walk, which I am proud to have finished but did not race it. My high school didn't even have a football team (our single football player had to play for the school down the street). And even though I was on the gymnastics team, I hurt my knee my sophomore year and didn't get to continue. Being an athlete - thinking, living, eating, sleeping, having the discipline of an athlete, is not me.

Yet in other aspects of my life, I think I'm pretty competent and probably even competitive. I always try to my hardest and usually be the best that I can. So, there is this gap. I want to be an athlete. To be as disciplined and see improvements and results that I expect in all other aspects of my life.

The triathlon and being a triathlete is a way for me to close this gap. A real powerful one. It's proof, or rather, disproof, that I can be an athlete too. A useful reminder in the distant future that I trained my arse off in order to cross a finish line.

There are so many reasons why I am doing this and I will share them all in the next few months. This is one.