What's Yo Dream!

I was at home the day after the 1st Pfit competition was over. I was feeling a little down and not quite sure what to do with myself. While I have dropped quite a bit of weight, svelte isn't yet in my list of current applicable adjectives. And for 10 weeks, every week, I was held accountable by a scale in Eileen's office. I felt the competition looming. Kind of like when you're heading upstairs out of a dark basement and you just know something is going to get you and you scoot up the stairs a little faster. What was I to do now that I wasn't going to be able to get that weekly push?

Then an old recurring idea resurfaced. I should try a Triathlon! I wouldn't call it a dream at that point because before the weight loss I had never even considered that it was near the realm of possibility. It was more like when you are little and you want to grow up to be a Marine Biologist Archaeologist Rock Star. Nice thought, but since I'm posting this from my cubicle in the hallway of my office building, (during lunch hour Boss!) you can rest assured that I'm not writing hair ballads about the 2 million year-old Saber-Toothed Albino Whale skeleton I just dug up. Thinking back, I think the first incarnation of wanting to race may have occurred while watching Julie Moss' grueling 1982 Ironman finish. I yelled at the TV. I cheered! I'm quite sure I had goosebumps. I know that moment had a huge effect on the sport worldwide. (Want to watch it again? Here it is. Isn't youtube wonderful?) It took everything she had, or probably would have for the next year, to get her exhausted tuchas over that finish line. I want to see just what I can accomplish now. You?

I'm a happier person with a goal. And I get a huge kick out of competition. I love to win stuff. Love it. With a goal established, I have something that I am moving toward a little bit every day. I can geek out and plan. Make spreadsheets of training plans and buy lots of books about my craze and then check items off my to-do list in a very satisfactory manner as I do them. It's a good feeling that I am getting a little stronger or a little faster or a little more lean with every workout or every good food choice I make. Because that one is hard for me. Me and crap food have this whole stockholm syndrome thing going on. I have to stay away because it's BAD, but I'm deeply in love with buttercream frosting. So even these little choices feel big.

So how about it? Do you have a goal you are working toward right now? A looming deadline? Is there a high school reunion in your future and you want to lose 20 lbs? Getting married and you bought a dress a size smaller than you currently are? Are you like me and are eagerly awaiting your first race and hope to finish smiling like an idiot?

13 weeks and counting!