First Blog: The Skinny On This Whole Thing...

Heads-up, this first post will be a long one. You expected that, right?

Whelp, you may or may not have known already that I'm doing a triathlon so I'll fill you in on the details. About 3 months ago, my friend Kate asked for help with perfecting her swimming since she wanted to enter a triathlon. After some discussion, somehow or another, we decided it would be great if we did our first one together. So Kate found us a great one that gave us just over 6 months of training time, and life was grand.

The race we're doing is a sprint triathlon for beginners like us and it's called 'The Wild Man 3' and it's held at Moss Park in Orlando, FL on March 15&16. The link is on the left side of this page... :)

Now you can look at it two ways: Either that it's a really small race (compared to Ironman events, etc. it is!) or you can look at the distance and think that this is quite an accomplishment. I prefer the latter approach. I mean, a .4 km swim, 20km bike, and 2.75 mile run (with approximately a 1.5-3 hour time of completion) is nothing to sneeze at. Couple that with the fact that (I admit, with shame) I didn't really know how to ride a bike, well, it's a big deal, man!

But lately I've been thinking that it would be better to make it an even BIGGER deal. It's great to get fit and do this for myself, but what if I could do something for others too? That's when I started looking into raising money for a good cause, and found an organization that struck a chord in my heart: Acupuncturists Without Borders, or AWB. (www.acuwithoutborders.org). The short story of this organization is this: It was founded in 2005 and, in their words, "Aims to bring compassionate and effective relief and recovery to underserved communities affected by disaster, war, conflict and poverty around the world. Utilizing community acupuncture, and working through local alliances, our initial presence in an area is devoted to overcoming the immediate effects of trauma." They helped with individuals coping from the aftermath of Katrina, for instance. Absolutely amazing. Given that I'm an acupuncture student now, I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for me to help others in the only way I can right now until I have my license and my own practice. And reading the letters of love that abound on the website, I can't imagine a better organization to sweat for and support, so they are where I put my heart and my donation, and where I will ask you to support me as well. I'm still working out the details on this, and will get back to this more I promise. Just know that I'm setting my sights high, and I won't settle for less! ;)

But anyway, back to the workouts. So for two solid months now, we've been at it. First it was building up gear, slowly. I got an old 10 speed (almost as old as me, old!) and little do-dads here and there like sassy bike gloves (which I laughed about at first but now probably couldn't live without) and such. And Kate and I have trained faithfully. Typically 5 days a week, sometimes slightly less because I'm away often for weekends doing yoga teacher training. It has not been easy to fit it into the schedule. It has not been easy to summon the strength to get the ole' body moving after a long day at the office or before diving into homework for grad school. But we've done it. So far, so good.

I have to say, I'm very thankful for Kate who has kept me on track. Big kudos to my training buddy! She's enthusiastic, energetic, devoted, organized, and fun to be around. What more could I ask for while I'm in pain and exercising, right?

Anyway, as I write this I have approximately 4 months until race time. Four more months to summon up my strength, to avoid injury, to increase my speed, to become a total superstar. And with December lurking around the corner, now is the perfect time to start a blog and get the support of all you people out there. You see, at the end of November I head back to Gainesville for 3 weeks of acupuncture school, return to New Smyrna for 2 days, then fly home to MA for a week of Xmas holiday relaxation. That means approximately 1 month of exercising solo. Can I do it? Can you cheer me on? I would love your love and support...

More to come soon...

xo,
K