Let's get this started

I've never written a blog before, so excuse any inappropriate blogging behavior you may find here.

A few weeks ago, I was searching through the Ironman website for some information about my target race of the spring, Ironman Texas, which is officially one month away (can you believe it?  I sure can't.)  Well, before I could get to the race site, I saw an announcement about the Ironman Foundation-Newton Running Ambassador Triathlon Team.  I read the information about they were looking for and thought to myself "Well, this just seems perfect, doesn't it."  Then I saw that the deadline to apply was that evening, so I went from work to class, got home that night and filled out the application as best as I could in that time.  After submitting it, I really thought that I wouldn't have a chance.  Unbelievably, I got an email a couple weeks later telling me that I had been offered a spot.  I was running late to meet a friend, but I think I smiled the whole way that I rode my bike over.

I started racing triathlons in the spring of 2008, my senior year of highschool, when I decided that I didn't want to swim in college and that I would be fun to try something new and put some more focus into running.  Luckily, I lived in Berkeley, home of Cal Triathlon-- arguably the best collegiate triathlon team in the country (they won collegiate nationals that year)-- so I was given a great introduction to training and racing in this new sport.  I was hooked after my first race, though the swim was in a pool, I struggled to put a t-shirt and sock since I was still wet and I had to tell my dad that he couldn't help me during the race after he ran into the transition area as I was stuck inside my shirt and squirming around try to get it over my head.

The next summer, I was lucky to get the opportunity to travel to Israel to compete in the triathlon at the Maccabiah Games, which is an international Jewish sporting event.  I was thrilled to get third in the 17-18 sprint race.  While in Israel, I met a guy from Michigan who was signed up to do Ironman Coeur d'Alene the next summer.  I had been involved in the sport for about 15 months at that point, but I already knew that I wanted to do an Ironman eventually.  I don't know if it was completely rational, but I thought that I might as well sign up for that race too.  It would be as good a motivation as any knowing that I would see a friendly face and, based on the date, it would be the last chance for me to do my first one before I turned 20.  So I signed up and haven't looked back since.  I've been hooked on Ironman racing since I painfully finished Coeur d'Alene in 2010 and have learned a lot since then, both from my mistakes and from my coach, Rachel Sears Casanta of Hypercat Racing.

Triathlon, and especially Ironman, racing has required a lot of time, support (both emotional and financial), and energy directed towards me from my friends and my parents.  It had been a healthy activity (obsession?) that my parents have been willing to support me to do, but I am excited to take this year to start to give back and do something positive for my community and the communities hosting the events that I do through the sport and the Ironman Foundation-Newton Running team.