Speed, it was all about the speed.

Part 2 - How I got to this point? 

I was once really fast.  Not sorta quick or kinda fast, but really, really fast.  Some of you who knew me way back when would remember.  I was a sprinter and sprinters are different.  You can't teach speed.  In high school I did very little training at track practices and still won a lot of races.  After high school I headed off to Dalhousie University to go to school, but truth be told mostly to go run for Dal and it became obvious, very quickly that I wasn't the fast kid anymore, now everyone was fast and winning became a lot of work.  I trained 3-4 hours a day on the track.  I was a regular at physio and I saw the orthopedic surgeon more than my professors.  The intense training took a toll on me.  I physically began to break down.  But I also began to break down mentally and emotionally.  In time, I hated running.  I hated the pressure.  I walked away.  To this day I still can recall emotions of running at Dal. 

So, I was a little nervous when I began my journey of training for my first triathlon.  But this is different than running collegiate track.  I don't feel the pressure to perform.  I compete against myself.  Heck, I stopped to help a competitor fix a flat tire in my last triathlon and he still kicked my ass after, just because if I didn't he wasn't going to finish (I had a pump on my bike).  Slower the better.  Does that sound like a sprinter?

Part 3 - Tomorrow - Y Tri at the YMCA and Michael Phelps.