Now what?

After reading so many great and exciting posts from all my teammates here, I have avoided casting a shadow on our successes with a painful story of injuries and disappointment. Or maybe that’s just a cover for the fact that I am still struggling to see the outcome of a convergence of struggles that threatens my future as a professional triathlete. Either way, if you are reading this, I know that you care enough that I feel that you can be and should be entrusted with this story. And please forgive me for disappearing for the last 3 months.

As one of the first members of the elite Riptide triathlon team, I have been pursuing this dream of being an extraordinary professional triathlete for nearly 4 years. Like all careers, it is filled with incredible ups and downs - fantastic trips, painful injuries, confident wins and crushing losses. Its hard to put into words and, unless you’re a triathlete, hard to understand how complicated and powerful a relationship with this sport can be.

This spring I was on the verge of that big breakthrough but yet on the brink of despair. Strange how those two can come on simultaneously sometimes - and how fast it becomes completely irrelevant so quickly.

In June, I got slammed by a drunk driver and a Chevy 3500HD while on a training ride. After being shot 120 feet up the should of Lefthand Canyon, I slid to a halt - in shock and gasping for air. I looked up in time to see a large, heavy-duty truck with dually wheels go sliding off the road and slam into the embankment. I looked down assessing my own physical damage. Toes move - check: hands move - check. All things considered, I had just seriously lucked out with ‘only’ some major gashes in my legs and a compression fracture in my T9 vertebrae (which requires 3 months in a brace).

But all that’s behind me now - sort of. Months of no training, pain, frustration, disappointment, depression, are slowly fading. The memory of the unexpected impact is not quite as vivid. The subsequent fear of loss by my girlfriend and family members still lingers but is abiding. The bike is not quite as friendly place as it used to be. I’ve found comfort in the mountain bike but a crash last week cut my knee down to the bone again and further delays a comeback. Swimming feels like I’ve just started. And running is still not allowed.

And now, to make life more complicated, I’ve replaced a 10:00 - 4:30 job with the rigorous MBA program at CU.

So not to burden all of you but now what?