Hi everyone,

Well, it's been over a year since I've been blogging and have decided to start again to document my upcoming training for Ironman Hawaii. For those of you who don't know..... I received the news on April 15th that I am one of the lucky lottery recipients for a coveted slot to compete in the Ironman World Championships in Kona this October. This is huge for me and definitely one of the highlights of my life. I started the sport of triathlon back in 2002 and sporadically competed in sprint level triathlons. It took me a few years to get comfortable swimming and to really get into the sport and I'll tell you my first attempts at half ironman distances were not pretty. But, lets go back even farther so that I can attempt to explain to you what drew me to this sport and what drew me to even dream about Ironman....

I can't remember the specific year, but I want to say it may have been around 1991 or 1992 when I was a college student, I was watching tv one day and I was bored when the Ironman World Championship came on. I was immediately riveted and glued to the set watching adults compete in a triathlon with unimaginable distances. I will never forget watching Mark Allen take command of such a difficult feat, and I continued to watch year after year, Mark Allen, taking down that course and bringing home a first place medal. I was astounded that anyone could manage something so difficult. It inspired me, and I eagerly awaited every year to watch this emotional tearjerker of athletic events. At the time, I never imagined that I too would one day be able to call myself an ironman. I was just happy to sit on the sidelines and watch, and watch every year as they replayed the snippet of Julie Moss crawling to the finish line. Wow! just Wow! was all I had to say or give.

Fast forward to the year 2002. I was working at 3M at the time and they frequently had lunch seminars and they had one on doing a triathlon, so I went. I figured if I could just get the swimming part under control that this would not be a difficult thing for me. I signed up for my first triathlon and signed up for a training program. I quickly learned that I desperately needed to hire a personal swim coach, and it took several years for me to get comfortable with the mass swim starts and swimming in open water. I had always had the desire to do an Ironman, I just didn’t think I had the time or stamina for one, and it wasn’t until the year 2008, I was watching a friend complete her first ironman and I got inspired to go for it. At the time, I had a job where I was working from home, and the feat of combining the rigourous training needed with a full time job seemed feasible. I signed up for an ironman and gave myself a year to train for it. I’m now happy to say that I have two ironman finishes under my belt, and I am ready to take on the training for Kona. I just completed Ironman St George on May 1st, and I’m giving myself a month long break before I go into serious training mode again.

I start my training on June 2nd, and I’ll keep this blog going to tell you all about my adventures and breakdowns while training for the Ironman Hawaii, which has been my dream. If you are interested in donating to my campaign for the Coalition for Colon Cancer, please follow the link to my donation site. As a thanks for this opportunity, I am raising money for the Coalition for Colon Cancer in honor of my dad, who passed away this past February after a 4 year battle with this disease. I’m thrilled to have this opportunity and would like to give back as thanks, so any amount is greatly appreciated!! Here is the link to my fundraising page: www.active.com/donate/ColonCancerCoalition/laurieviault