Last night I was in the bookstore searching for a book assigned by my VP for our weekly meetings when another book caught my eye. This book claimed that if I dedicated four hours a week to doing what the author told me to do, I'd be able to compete in a triathlon in just six weeks. Right.

With my incredible history of failure in the area of running or races screaming in the back of my mind, I thumbed through the book. Four hours a week isn't too much time, and I had just been cringing at my reflection as I walked into the bookstore only minutes before.

I had been abruptly shaken by the adventure tour in Puerto Vallarta as I'd always felt capable of doing anything I put my mind to and despite the horror of clothes shopping, lived in the basic denial of the facts-- I seriously needed to become more active. But even with the idea that I don't get around to exercising on a regular basis, I felt I got some activity from my job, where I lift heavy trays and run about the restaurant for hours on end. The truth remains: after getting through the Adventure Vallarta mountain course with flying colors, I hurried to the computers loaded with the photos of the days adventure only to discover that all but two of my pictures were shareable. Granted, I was wearing a bright turquoise shirt and bright orange boardshorts and was strapped in a harness, but the photos were awful.

Thus the reason I continued to search the book about triathlons despite the better judgement of my well-trained nay-sayer voice in the back of my head. The mere fact that I've devoured three books about traveling in the past week and a half and have started to consider trips to places I never thought I'd be interested in has shown me that I need a change and some excitement. Getting up and going to work every morning and then going home and sleeping is not how I want to live out the rest of my days. It seems like something as outrageous as a triathlon could be the very thing to shake things up for the better. If nothing else, I could lose some weight- and that is always good.

Despite my initial hesitancy, I bought the book and read 3/4 of it last night. I used to be a lifeguard and love swimming and actually still have my racing bike from when my family would do 50+mile bike rides in August heat. With a little training, I may feel confident enough to enter the Danskin Women's Triathlon in June and should be able to at least finish the race.

We'll see. :)