How it all started

When I was about to turn 40 I realised that life goes by really fast and that if I wanted to enjoy my journey I had to do something with my own life. At that point I decided to get serious about my training and get back in shape. I was not overweight but had some to lose to be honest, so I started training more seriously. I started doing what could be called interval walking/running on my treadmill. Then I decided to buy a trainer so I could ride my bike in the basement until the summer would be back with us. When the warmer weather finally arrived I started riding my bike outside, nothing especially fascinating but enough to slowly get in better shape. Then one day a friend of mine, with whom I ride sometimes, talked me into doing a Duathlon Plus relay. "A what?" I told him. So he explained me what a Duathlon Plus was, I figured that running five kilometers, riding ninty kilometers and then running ten more kilometers was not that bad. I had a friend who did a marathon before so I knew he could handle the running part. I now only had to get ready to ride for ninty kilometers ... I started training a little more week after week, from twenty kilometers ride up to ninty kilometers, at that point I knew I would be able to finish it. My teammate and I decided that we would do a sprint Duathlon a couple weeks before the real event so we would at least know how a Duathlon works. It was a really good idea, since we learned that we had to pass the chip to each other, that I couldn't remove my helmet in the transition area and all the other rules that I had no idea about. We did that sprint, and we really enjoyed ourselves. Then two weeks later we both turned forty the week before the Duathlon Plus, so we named out team "The 40's" and we ran/ride as fast as we possibly could. We finished eight on twelve teams, not first but it was good enough to make us happy. After those two Duathlons in two weeks I was hooked, no way I could stop there. So I decided to start running and do one on my own seven weeks later. A sprint Duathlon which was, five kilometers run followed by a twenty kilometers ride and then two and a half kilometers run. And I did it, I was really proud of myself because I finished it 10 minutes faster than I was expecting. I did another Duathlon later in the summer and did a couple of running race also to complete the season. I did a five kilometers, a ten kilometers and a half marathon later in the fall. What a wonderfull first year in the sport, but in the back of my head I always had that idea that it would be wonderful to complete a triathlon and to become one day an Ironman. So I decided to start swimming and to train more. This is where my journey to become an Ironman became, and since then it continues everyday. After almost a year from the begining of my training I decided to blog about my journey to one day, become an Ironman.