Finally, taking the 1st step...

Hello, everyone!
After 3 years of volunteering with the Ironman Wisconsin in Madison, WI, I decided to take the plunge and start training for an Ironman. Why? Numerous reasons: I have 2 friends that are triathletes (and one going to Kona in the next month or so!), wanting to accomplish a goal in life, don't want to be lazy after coming home from full-time job, get my kids interested other things other than playing video games and to stop watching Cartoon Network and Boomerang (they play football, basketball, track, and do karate), get more endurance, etc.
Even though Ironman Wisconsin this year was chilly and rainy the whole day, the athletes were fantastic and were great motivators for me. I did a double-shift being a Running Marshal and stayed out in the rain (I didn't put on my rain jacket either) and cheered them on. When an athlete, who has been pushing themselves for over 10 hours, tells me that it's great that I'm out there volunteering and thanking me for being there, I find THAT to be extremely impressive.

Now, a little about me. I'm 41, 6'3", 165 lbs (definite runner's build), married with 3 boys - 9 yrs, 7 yrs, and 16 months - and use to be a runner a long time ago. At this time, I am on my 6th week of a running schedule. I run for 60 minutes, 3 to 4 days a week, doing LSDs on several different hilly courses near my house at around an 8 min/mile pace to get my endurance up and my legs acclamated (my 1st week was doing 2 miles a day for 4 days, and then building it up from there). I can bike about 35 - 40 miles within 2 hours (using a Cannondale H200 hybrid, it's not the best bike in the world, but it's better than a WalMart Huffy). I don't know about swimming yet, but can front-crawl swim for about 20 - 30 min at a comfortable pace. I'm trying to "adapt" to heart rate monitoring, which is quite a different training method. My friend that will be competing in Kona provided me numerous resources (like slowtwitch.com) and has told me some of his personal tips, since he's been doing triathlons for 20 years.

Why am I here at beginnertriathlete.com? Probably more than anything is for personal motivation. My wife and I are total opposites (not interested in competition, doesn't work out even though she looks great, has never been a "cheerleader"). This site is for people helping each other, and I believe that I could come to this site and become positive or get re-energized whenever I don't feel like training that day, or whatever.

Thanks for your time and support. Good luck to all of you, too, on trying to reach your goals!