Because I Can

Recently I have taken a two week trip to California for work. These trips are good because I get to meet people that I work with often, but rarely get to see them and a few I have never actually seen before. I also get to work with people from other organizations that I don't get to work with often. Ether way, we start talking to build a relationship and discuss what we do for fun and stuff like them. Pretty normal stuff. Well I seem to be not normal.

We don't always talk about work so our lives outside of work come up often. If you know me, you know that I'm pretty into triathlons and fitness in general. So this is what I usually talk about. I tell them that I do triathlons and I have done races from sprint distance up to Ironman distance races. I am not as fit nor motivated as I used to be but I'm still generally healthy and active and my entire life revolves around these things. Many people think this is strange. They don't understand why I do this and ask me what I do it. My response: because I can.

I actually thought about this and that's about the best thing that I could come up with. I like a challenge and pushing myself to my limits. But I already done one Ironman so I proven that I can do it so why don't I return to the confines of the couch and a pack of smokes? Why don't I go back to eating fast food for lunch, pizza for dinner, and happy hour 4 nights a week? Because my life doesn't revolve around that stuff anymore. I have found things such as running and triathlons that bring me much more joy than watching TV and hangovers. It's easy to sit on the couch and easy to eat ice cream. It's hard to get up at 4:30am some days and it is hard to make yourself go for at least a 3 mile run when you're tired and it is 104* degrees outside. Pushing yourself to do an Ironman and the sacrifices that come with it are very difficult. But I do it because I can. Life isn't easy and I figure that if I can do things that I don't want to do when things are going OK, this actually helps out when things in life aren't going so well. I've developed a sense of being able to push through things when the going gets tough. And a lot of people don't get that by any means. Luckily, I have surrounded myself with a bunch of like minded friends who are into fitness and triathlons and they get this mentality. And I do have some other friends that aren't as hardcore as me but they at least accept what I do although I agree with them that I am slightly crazy for doing these things at times. But it still comes down to the fact that I'm like this because I can be.

Weekly run mileage: 14.5 miles
Asics mileage: 75 miles