new and advice needed!

Hi, my name is Nancy, and I'm a 41 year old wife and mother from New Jersey. We have four kids ranging from 5 -10 years old. I was a competitive runner up through high school, and a recreational runner ever since then, mostly for fitness, with the occasional 5K thrown in. Well, last December my husband who is 42 was diagnosed with composite lymphoma (a combination of both Hodgekins and non-Hodgekins), which threw us for a loop to say the least. However, I am happy to report that he has finished his treatment for now and everything looks great. Meanwhile, I was contacted by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society regarding their Team in Training program. They recruit for marathons, cycling events, and olympic distance triathlons to raise money for the organization. I am really interested in the triathlon events: I think it would be so much more interesting and fun than a marathon, although more challenging for me, in a way (at this point , I don't even own a bike!) My question is, could a newbie triathlete, without even one sprint triathlon under her belt, successfully complete an olympic triathlon as her first event, if she trained enough? The first triathlon that TNT is recruiting for is in Hawaii in April 2008 which would give me 7 months to get ready. With all my kids in school this year, and being a stay at home mom, I do have the time to commit to training, but my fear is that I wouldn't have the chance to get any real triathlon experience (say, at a sprint distance) prior to the race since it will be right at the start of triathlon season. TNT will also form a team for a triathlon in Florida in September 2008, which would give me a chance to complete a couple local sprint triathlons next summer before the event, and "get my feet wet", so to speak, but that seems so long from now, and I'm really fired up to get going on the training and the fund-raising ASAP. So, my question is, what would you do??? Any and all advice is welcomed!

Thanks,

Nancy