If you're wondering about my title, I dedicate it to Kevin's previous post which reads a little like War and Peace. Now that we have a history of Kevin's journey from the Dark Ages to the present, I'll write a brief response about how I got here. As some may know, I got my start competing in Marching band, that's right (shocking I'm sure). I never did any sports in high school or college though I wish now that I had joined the swim team when I had the chance, could have been useful.
My first race of any kind was the Seven Sister's trail race in Amherst, MA. If you know that race, you know it has about 4,000 feet of vertical and is 12 miles, 12 crazy miles. I was in grad school at the time (Geology for the ignorant) and after that race a good friend suggested I do a triathlon. So I signed up for the Hyannis sprint, that was 2001. So in all my glory, with my mountain bike, my baggy swim suit, and real crappy running shoes finished and had a blast!!
The next few years I didn't really train until I got serious and started training with Mike Sarro up when I was living in Concord, NH in 2005. Those were good times when I could just race and improve so easily. My favorite race was coming 3rd in my age group ---- out of 5!! In 2006 I moved to Nashua. I had read about a Master's swimming club that worked out in Nashua at 6:30 at the Boy's and Girl's Club. So I show up at 6:30 but no one was there, that's when I learned that it was 6:30 - in the mornining! And lo and behold who do I meet there - swimming sort of - Kevin McIntyre!!
So that is how it all began, I actually think I was slower then Kevin when I first started swimming - but only for like 2 weeks (hard to be slower than backwards). Kevin sort of led me to the crazy triathlon triangle of Leslie Reap - Gate City Striders - Granite State Penguins - Molly Zahr - and finally to QT2 and an Ironman, which I swore I would never do after my first half ironman in Phoenix, AZ. Still haven't quite got the run down right after the bike - I'm sure it will happen during an Ironman - right! right?
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