the russell5

Quite some time back my close friend, rich, reawakened my outdoor adventure spirit by introducing me to mountain biking. I love the speed, the challenge, the technical aspects, the drop-offs, the injuries, the pucker factor and the destination rides. In the fall of 2008 several of us took a road trip to Moab, UT and Durango, CO ( 1 2 ) and it only further fueled my desires to be outside and alive with sport, competition and friends. But, as much as I love mountain biking, I wasn’t able to do enough of it to keep from getting fat. So, late in 2008 when3 friends proposed the challenge of an olympic triathlon, I couldn’t pass up the chance to compete, loose weight and try something new. The first ‘tri’ competition was March of this last year… at the time, it was the easily hardest thing I have ever done. From there, we did more training, a ’splashNdash’ then another tri in May. In July, our family headed north of the border for some relaxing and epic mountain bike riding in Whistler. Then, this fall I  dedicated my time to improving my running times for the 2010 triathlon season. I even went so far as to put my bikes away and STOP DRINKING BEER. I found an excellent training partner here in Seattle and on Dec. 6 I ran a half marathon (13 miles) in 1:42:17. So… having had an epic year, I am definitely excited about the things to come for 2010….