The first of many ramblings and incoherant thoughts

Ok, so I've never been into blogs before. Then I get deployed to Iraq, and I find out my wife has a blog and it's a beautiful insight into the woman she is. She just gave birth to my awesome son back in July, and already she is talking about half marathons and how mad she was that Hurricane Ike screwed up her first 5k since having Reilly. She's an animal. She is my inspiration though. I've been in the army for 16 years and I've always had to stay in shape, but it has always been a chore, a part of my job, and definately not a passion. I came home from work one day last year, and told her one of my buddies wanted me to start training for triathlons with him. Taking this as a "Gut Check" and a definate challenge to my manhood, I accepted. The whole time I'm thinking, "What the heck am I getting myself into? I'm about to embarrass the crap out of myself!" I can run, but swim in open water? I don’t own a road bike. What the heck am I doing?
I go home full of bravado, and I proclaim to my bride, “I’m going to start doing triathlons with the guys from work. Us men are going to brave flailing arms and legs in shark infested waters, then bike great incomprehensible distances racing at crazy speeds that insure certain death if you crash. Then, when I’m done with that, I gut it out on an excruciating long distance run.” I’m expecting her to say, “Oh, my brave and strong husband. You are so great for accepting such a perilous challenge and defying all odds to complete such a grand achievement!”
No, she says no such thing! Instead, she says, “Cool, I wanna do it!” What? Doesn’t she know what a triathlon is? Doesn’t she know I could die? Doesn’t she know it takes great athletic achievement and perseverance to accomplish such a quest? She says, “Cool, I wanna do it, too!” And that was it. We were both hooked. We trained together. We went on group rides, open water swim sessions, swim masters, and early morning interval workouts at the track. Working out and getting in shape was fun now. I looked forward to my workouts with my best friend.
My first triathlon was an Xterra Offroad Triathlon. I didn’t own a road bike, and I figured I was good at mountain biking and running. I could do this. I was the last guy out of the water. The lifeguards floated behind me the whole time and were asking me if I needed help. How embarrassing. I ran to the transition area on the beach and quickly got my bike. I got some confidence back when I was screaming past riders on the trail. This was my strength. I finished strong on the run and hurt pretty bad on the way in. When I finished, I asked the officials for the standings. They told me don’t worry about it you didn’t place. It didn’t matter, though, I finished my first triathlon and I was still alive.
My wife, Katie, had her first triathlon a few weeks after that. It was an all women’s triathlon. She was so awesome. I was so proud of her. She was pretty nervous, but she is a true athlete. Her competitive spirit kicked in and she finished strong. She was awesome. After that, we both did three triathlons together and she placed in every single one of them. She got some really cool stuff.
So after our final race last year, Katie got pregnant in October. I got deployment orders for Iraq. She started taking her training a lot easier. She quickly went to just swimming. Now that she has had Reilly though, she is back into the swing of things. She has been building her endurance up and when she’s not changing diapers, feeding, or catching up on some badly needed sleep, her sister is watching our son, so she can take our 70 lb ridgeback, Molly, for a run. Did I say my wife is awesome?
I’m in Baghdad, and I have been pretty busy. When I can find time, I still try to get my workouts in. Swimming is out of the question. I swam for the first time last week at the Embassy pool. The logistics of getting there was so difficult, I probably won’t do that again. The summers here are crazy hot. I had to get up at 0400 just to run before it got into the 100’s. You can’t run in the dust storms if you want to keep your lungs, so I’ve been forced to hit the treadmill often. I bought a German version of a Huffy to ride around the Forward Operating Base where I live. It is called a Fischer. Trust me, it is in no way a Garry Fischer. It does the job though. I installed clipless pedals, so I can use my shoes and get a pretty good workout. I have to do quite a few laps though to get any distance and that gets boring pretty quick. My rides are still a good escape from normal operations.
Well, if you read all this, I commend you. You sure do have a lot of time on your hands. In the future I promise to be more concise and work on brevity in my posts.