This will be the "Year of firsts... again"

Life is not a dress rehearsal.

Life is not a dress rehearsal.

Life is NOT a dress rehearsal.

Jon Blais was the only man to complete the Kona Ironman world championships while diagnosed with ALS

This quote has been said by a lot of different people throughout history. But the first time I heard it, it was from the mouth a Jon Blais, also known as the "Blazeman". Jon Blais was the only man to complete the Kona Ironman world championships while diagnosed with ALS. He completed the course in 2005, but then ALS took over most of muscle control in 2006 and Jon was forced to cheer from the sidelines while another man completed the course in Jon's name. To see his complete story you can go to: http://www.waronals.com/about_jon.php

Now Jon was a person of passion and drive. Never wanting to give up and continued to fight on awareness and research for ALS. In 2007 Jon passed away, but left a legacy with the war on ALS and my inspiration of this blog, "Life is not a dress rehearsal".

With change comes "out with the old, in with the new", for better or for worse

To most, when you get inspired you want to do something new and exciting. For me (at least now) that means "to do again". Since my move to California, my life has changed considerably. But with change comes "out with the old, in with the new", for better or for worse. For those that knew me in college, endurance sports was all I knew. Testing the limits. Challenging myself to do something crazy. Attempting the "impossible". Moving out to California, for many reasons, this is something that had to be put on the sidelines to allow for the "new" to take hold in my life.

This year will be the "Year of firsts...again"

I'm happy to announce, after 2.5 years of volunteering, carrying 3 jobs, attempting the startup life, trying to be a developer, and acclimating to the "California" way of life, it is time to take endurance off the sidelines. Now that I'm settling down with my career path, I can finally focus again. SO, this year will be the "Year of firsts...again"

In order to break new ground, I need dig out where I have filled in, which is why this will not be a year of "new",  rather, this year will be a year of "first time since", which I'm really excited about. In spirit on this new montra, I have started a twitter account called @YearOf1stsSince. Each time I do something momentous.... again,  I'll post it there to keep record of it all. So here's my lists of firsts...again for this year:

have a training schedule
cross train for running
push myself in a 5k
push myself in a 10k
run further than a half marathon
run longer than 2 hours
compete in a Tough Mudder
ride in Ragbrai
the scale shows below 215
run over 25 miles in a week
bike in the rain
run in the rain
collect a lot of crap (aka SWAG) form races
train in the dark
beat my brother-in-law in miles for a week's training
eat delicious gu, hammer, or even heed
train on distance rather than time
buy new running shoes
crash
stop at a random house for water
travel for a race (besides Iowa)
confuse my friends on why I do it

...and the list could continue.....

Here's hopin' this "year of firsts since" turns into another crazy adventure.