Why now?

I envy Sister Madonna Buder. I was reading about her in this month's Swimmer (the official magazine of U.S. Masters Swimming) about how she wants to be the first 80 year old female finisher in an Ironman event. I don't envy her race times (although she could probably beat me) or the fact that she has been to the prestigious Hawaiian Ironman many times. I envy her longevity. It may seem ridiculous to be competitive with someone who is 50 years older than me but I want to beat her. I want to break in the 90 year-old age bracket someday. It is a concept that is so far in the future that I can't even comprehend whether I'll even want to be doing an Ironman then, but as I sit here with yet another injury what I want more than anything is longevity in this sport.

As I am typing this I have a brace on my right hand and I'm looking at the possibility of the rest of this race season due to injury. What is getting me through at this point is the fact that being healthy and being able to participate racing for a long time are bigger goals for me than missing a couple races. However, one has to think that with three injuries in three years it worries me that my triathlon days could be numbered.

I am at a hectic point in my life...trying to balance the demands of 10 hour shifts as a physical therapist with family, caring for a home, pets, training and racing. I don't know where the next 6 weeks are going to leave me as I ponder at this point whether to throw in the towel for this year or to continue my build up for next month's Ironman. I love triathlon but to do one this big on a greatly reduced training schedule (as I have up to this point) is daunting. I also worry about prolonging the healing process or possibly making things worse.

So why start blogging now? To get me through this injury and hopefully learn some things along the way.