Triathlon has...

...taken care of whatever excess income I might have had.

I added "Made me lots of new friends, because I'm having a Kona party this weekend and nearly everyone who will be there I even didn't know before two years ago, when I started triathlon.

I actually just had my blood profile done last month...

Total cholesterol: 147.
HDL: 57, LDL: 77, Triglycerides: 62
Non-fasting blood glucose: 84
Body fat: 11%
Resting pulse: 40

Not bad for a 49-year-old...

But best of all, thanks to tri (and specifically BT!) I met the woman who became my wife (Lisa, lkct01234) on New Year's Eve almost 2 years ago.

Mental health wise I have never been better.  Happier, less stressed, just all around feeling good.

Today is my day 9 off of chewing tobacco.  Oct. 2 was my quit date.  Even though I have only done one tri, this sport has given me a lot of motivation to final flush what tobacco I had left and vow never to touch the stuff again.  This sport has really grabbed me and I want to see what I can do with it.  I know that the tobacco was holding me back, so it had to go.  So I guess you could say that Triathlon has helped me take me life back from nicotine.

Count me as one of the 50+ lb LOSERS.  I had quite a few coworkers that were runners (not fast runners, but they did it) and they kind of inspired me to start.  Once I told them I was a swimmer in HS they immediately started talking about how I could complete a Sprint - "Not a freaking chance!" I told them.  That was just my defense mechanism for not doing it, though.  In my mind I already knew that I could do it, I just had to have the desire to.  Didn't do much with the thought until blurting the idea of a sprint to my sister in October 2011 - she was immediately excited and it was going to happen!

Three tris this year of varying success levels - but all of them FINISHED.  Very excited to see what I can get my engine to do next.

Absolutely, I found two thing's that are really helping.  I will PM you with some info, either tonight, or after my morning workout.

Mike

x2, largely because of BT.  It's the reason I continue to be a mentor, too.

I'd lost weight and got active before I started triathlons, but ithas helped me stay active and keep the weight off for 7+ years. 

I've made a lot of new friends, and met some wonderful people in real life that I first met on BT. 

Provided a lot of positive mental training.  I'm quite grateful to have been a BT mentor on several occasions and that has been as beneficial to me as it has been to my proteges. 

I was getting lots of little overuse injuries from running back 12 years ago.  I started riding an exercise bike to reduce the strain from running, then I started swimming some too.  Then, I rode my old road bike outside again after many years which rekindled a favorite hobby of 30 years ago.  Things fell into a regular routine.  What I do looks like triathon training, but I never actually felt the need to enter a race. But, I have stayed injury free mostly for maybe 12 years. 

I am currently on a training break because family life has intervened but I will be back.  The running bag is packed and in the car for any opportunity.   

For the guys trying to give up chewing tobacco, might I be so bold as to suggest what I did.

Just.
Stop.

Finish the can/pouch you have now.  Then, don't replace it. 

Seriously... just give it up.

I did it.  I'm nothing special. 

Besides... if you've ever finished a triathlon, you've already proven you have the gumption.

made me find this sight.

It made me find some cool people to chat with on the Interwebz and share thoughts, ideas, and other odd things that I never would have found in my real life and at work.

For me, it's mainly given me better physical balance and mental stress relief. I've run at one level or another since age 10, sometimes fast, sometimes not very fast; sometimes daily and in serious competitive training, sometimes just casual fun-running. I love running, but owing to some chronic back and hamstring issues, it hasn't always loved me back since about age 30. When I moved to Vietnam, I started doing a lot more swimming as running is a miserably hot proposition here and we had a pool and master's program at my workplace. Others in the program talked me into my first tri. So it's given me an excuse to swim more, which I love, and biking, while it's a love/hate thing, has made me a more balanced and less injury-prone runner.

In terms of mental health, a great stress reliever. I'm an extremely high-energy person and, unless truly ill or exhausted, go nuts without a daily workout. I start to climb the walls, can't focus on anything, get insomnia, and lose my temper. My body won't take daily running so tri training lets me mix it up and get in a good workout almost daily.

It's hard to separate triathlon from BT since so much of what I get out of triathlon starts with learning things on BT.

Triathlon has allowed me to cross train, get in fantastic shape and not burn out from the same old same old.

I've met a ton of people simply from networking on places to swim bike run, whether it's in my area or where I'm traveling.

BT has helped me buy a ton of gear, I found a bikeshop for a great deal on a bike, I've bought shirts, stickers, GU, NUUN, a wetsuit and probably other things I've forgotten...

BT is the place where people can ask questions and get tons of feedback on things that is invaluable, and the speed in which you get feedback allows you to start testing and applying things you learn right away.

You should have