What made you want to get into tris? (Page 3)

I started running again about 4 years ago after a 15 year hiatus.  I live on a lake and there is a triathlon that takes place right on my lake.  For 2 years, I took the kids up and we cheered on the people as they ran by.  The whole time I was watching, I was thinking this is really cool and I should be out there doing that.  Well I turned 40 this year and thought if I am going to do this, I am not getting any younger.  This year my kids watched me run by, if you can call it running.  I did one more tri this past summer and now I am determined to get better at this. 

 The best reward for me in all of this is my ten year old daughter doing a triathlon a month after mine and my six year old already talking about doing one next year. 

My 41'st birthday was approaching & I realized that I felt like I was 90.  I'd spent the last 3 years being sick & spending way too much time in doctor's offices being told that it was just how my life was going to be from now on & I ought to face it. 

I remembered watching Kona on tv a few years back & thinking, "how cool!"  A few friends at work had done Sprint distance triathlons, & had tried to get me to train with them, but I always had the excuse that I was too sick to do anything like that.

I finally decided that I could either curl up & die or kick it in gear & see what I was made of. 

Here's what I figured out last weekend - finishing a sprint tri is just basic fitness for this 41 year old!  Now it's on to kickin' at another level!  I'll never be that sick & whinny chick again!

Thank heavens I got into tris!!!

I'd like to be able to point to one thing but I'm not sure I can.  In college several of my good friends were triathletes, I admired them and always said I wanted to do one but was always so scared of the swim.  Over 10 years later I was out of shape after a broken leg, down in the dumps in many aspects of my life when a friend suggested I train up and meet her for race, she had never done one before.  It sparked something, we never met for that race but she's now done 3 or 4, I've done two and started training for an Oly, I can't get enough of it.  Obviously because I'm writing this when I should be working! 

 After the workouts and the races I'd say it is the challenge of it all that motivates me, I feel great when I hit a new personal best for swimming or biking and then can still manage to get my legs going on a run!  Someone said it in a recent post as well, this website, the encouragement has been great!