A Quick Summary of My Triathlon Adventure

I jubilantly asserted, I’m going to race a triathlon!

I’m in my mid-30’s, and I never thought I would be blogging about my triathlon journey.

The Journey

My journey began a few years ago.

I had just finished a 1-hour 5k run and felt like my lungs were on fire, when I jubilantly exclaimed to no one in particular “that wasn’t TOO bad.. I think I’ll try a triathlon!”. I’ve always been goal driven, so I figured – alright, one more goal. Let’s go.

Okay! Keep in mind, I didn’t even own a bike, proper running shoes, heck even a swimsuit! Nonetheless, I set a goal – to complete a triathlon one day. Which triathlon – eh, that was for later. I was stoked, and I just knew I wanted to add “completing a triathlon” to my bucket list.

Awesome, I proceeded to add it to the bucket list!

The question then was where to even begin. A cursory “I want to try a triathlon” Google search revealed SO MANY resources. As a dad, husband, full-time professional, part-time STEM grad student, research time was limited. Sleep was too, for that matter, so my attention span was quite short. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information I found online. Bike frames (I only knew about road versus mountain), clipless shoes that clip on (why are they called clipless?!), wetsuits (for surfing? Why would I need one?) pacing, heart rate zones, VO2 MAX (sounded like chemistry), different triathlon distances, open water versus pool swimming, nutrition plans… in short, A LOT of information.

Not going to lie, I got pretty nervous.

Nevertheless, I had already stated my bucket list goal out loud to my family – for better or worse, I was committed to accomplishing it!

Fast forward to today. After two years and many 5ks, 10ks, half-marathons, full marathons, sprint and olympic distance triathlons, a 70.3 IRONMAN, and a full 140.6 IRONMAN later, I can confidently say – I think I’ve found a process and routine to train while balancing all other important life and school matters!

The Blog – Ticket2Tri

My hope with this blog is to help someone who is where I was just a few years ago. Perhaps I can also inspire someone who’s on the fence to try a tri. I started my journey while (to this day still) being a dad, husband, full-time professional and part-time STEM grad student, one random afternoon after an impromptu run. I heard the same recurring themes multiple times – how will you find the time? You’re going to sacrifice family time! Your school grades are going to suffer! Your career will stall if you focus on anything else! Through trial and error, I’ve found a few formulas that help in the balancing act of life and training.

If I can do it, I really, truly, fully believe you can too. It won’t be easy, and it won’t always be pretty – but it will be incredibly transformative. I bet you’re going to come out the other side a changed person for the better.

I’ll dive into it on a later post – but for now, this is my ultimate why. I am passionate about helping and lifting others, teaching what I know, and the sport of triathlon and all its constituent quirks. So, I figured, why not help others who might be new to the sport, try to teach a few things, and talk about triathlon! Thus, Ticket2Tri was born.

This blog will also be my creative outlet at times, race-recapping journal at others. Ultimately, I hope you enjoy its content and find it useful in your own triathlon journey, however far along it may be.

Thanks for being here, I appreciate you, and I hope you enjoy!

Fortitudine Vincimus

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