How this started....

OK. I'm going to try and be a little more diligent with my postings on this one but I want to step back and talk about why I'm doing this.

Here's how it came about: As many of you are aware last summer I went on a trip to France to ride my bike and watch the tour. See http://www.marcstdf.blogspot.com/ for details. Anyway, my wife Katie is thinking about renting a house in the south of France with a friend of hers next July. If she did I would do another Trek Travel trip. I might even do a two or three week trip instead of the one-week I did last year.

Anyway, in September I got the crazy idea that she could do one of the weeks with me. She's thin and fit and young, but she's more into yoga than aerobics so it would take a great commitment on her part to train for such an event. After thinking about it for a while she decided not to attempt the ride. Whenever I'd tell that story to a friend they would laugh and say there's no way someone could get ready for a trip like that in 10 months. I commented that with 10 months training I could do an Ironman. Again, friends would laugh and say it couldn't be done which of course is exactly the wrong way to discourage me.

I checked online and although the open entry for the Ironman Arizona event on April 15, 2007 was closed there were still slots open if you made a small charitable contribution. I signed up and committed myself to the event. Of course I only have 6 months to prepare, not 10.