Track Coach-
With long hair not unlike Samsonite, I ruled the high school track world. Ok, so I did pretty well in Washington State B school track and Field... Anyways, I was a hurdler/pole-vaulter in high school turned decathlete for a season in college before tradgedy struck. Actually it was less tradgedy and more stupidity. (I tore my hamstring from lack of stretching several times, the last of which took me out of track for good). But enough with the sad stuff. I think it's time to get happy. 
Like the old wise men say "Once you go track, you never go back," I am back in Track, this time as a high school coach. I have been coaching for three years now and I love every minute of it. I coach my kids in hurdles and sprints... Hurdles being my speciality. I enjoy it the most when I can take a kid that doesn't necessarily know they have talent in one area and give them the tools and training they need to succeed. I love to see my kids go on to state and win medals and all that. It definately brings it all back to me, except instead of just getting to enjoy the medals one time by myself, I get to enjoy the medals six or seven times with all the kids. So now you've heard the back story of coach, which brings us to the present. I have decided that while it is awesome to help other people achieve their goals, I think I need to have some goals of my own. With that in mind, I have decided to train for the ultimate goal of running an IRONMAN triathlon. Wowza, that's a little scary to say, up to now my athletic career has consisted of sprinting and the occasional longer run. I have never even run farther than a 10K. Notwithstanding my crappy endurance and my extra 30 pounds, I have decided to take on this challenge anyway... and with a little encouragement from adorable wife and hopefully a few friends, I think anything is possible.
So here we go, along the way, I will post my progress in training and race results. I will also post excercises that have helped me in the past or ones that I am currently using to beat up my kids (and myself). I would love to hear from other would be triathletes and runners as well as experienced athletes and runners if you have words of encouragement, like what you see ;) or happen to try some of the exercises you see on here and your reviews of them.
Adorable Wife-
I was living out the second phase of my dream life, stay at mom, yet I did not feel like me. This wife and mom wasn't complete. As I watched coach get invited to play softball and other friends cross finish lines at races, I knew I wanted to reignite my internal athletic flame. Our area is so small that rec sports for women (especially competitive ones) are few and far between, so I was quickly realizing that running may be my only option. I tried it. I still hated it. There were no balls, no other players to interact with, no constant action. I was bored. A big part of me didn't know if I could do it, but man did I want to. True accomplishment and pushing through the tough (if labor doesn't count) had been a missing friend in my life. What I needed was a "game" to push towards, so I signed up for my first 5k in June of 2010 and with no way out, completed it. Planning for the races is possibly TOO much fun, training for them, however, that I am still working on. I have only done two races to date and my times were SLOW. Sports always came very naturally to me, and I am struggling a bit with sucking at something. I may never be great, but coach says I have a good build and with his help maybe I can be. Right now, I just know that training and resurrecting the former athlete in me has made me happier than I have been in years and I don't want to lose that, so if I have to RUN to maintain it then, pavement here I come! And now I am getting into tri's. They just look like too much fun and seem closer to action I am used to!
You-
We have been blog hopping for a while and so many of you have been inspiring us, and helping to keep the wife, especially, running, and for that we thank you. Now as we start our scary journey into blog land we ask for your support, input, tips, and hilarious stories and hope that you may also gain from us. If nothing else, this will help keep us accountable because we know you all will be out there wagging your fingers at us if we aren't keeping up with our training. Both of us are pretty new to this whole racing world and don't know much about it's associated products so could definitely use your vast knowledge there. It will be great to see you around bloggy world and even cooler when we get to cross paths with some of you more local runners in the REAL world!
In the words of Barney Stinson, "[track]SUIT UP!"
