One Year Left...

This past Saturday was my birthday. I eluded to it in my last post about my 9th Training Cycle. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my birthday. I got to get in a workout of 29's (swam 2900 yards and biked the duration of a 29 mile ride). I also was able to spend a lot of quality time with my wife and kids after my workout. Sarah and I were lucky to find a babysitter and spent the night out with our best friends at Titletown Brewery in Green Bay. That was all after spending Friday night with our two families at a fish fry. After going out for fish, our families all came over to our house for some cake. All in all, it was a great weekend. My only complaint is that it went by way to quick.

Maybe that's my point here. That life goes by way to quick. I turned 29 this past Saturday and it still amazes me that I am 29 years old. By no means am I "old," and in the same breath, I am no longer a "young kid." I am one year away from turning 30 and to completely honest with you, that scares the hell out of me. I can't really tell you why, because 30 is still young. It could be the fact that I will no longer be in my 20's or it could be that I will only be 10 years away from 40.

I have been truly blessed and fortunate to have some great life experiences in my past 29 years. I have had the opportunity to travel throughout the USA, been to England for nearly 2 weeks, been to Mexico 3 times, own my own home, graduated college, had 2 beautiful girls, qualified and ran in the Boston Marathon, and married my best friend. I have had a great life, but like I said, it has flown by. It's like they say, don't blink. I feel as though it was just a few days ago Sarah and I got married and now all of a sudden we have a 3 year old daughter who is growing like a weed and is getting smarter every single day. Then there is our 20 month old who is learning what seems to be a new word each day.

To be honest, I have a great life. I have accomplished a lot, as I noted above. There are a bunch of cliches that can be said here. Tim McGraw sang a song called, "My Next 30 Years," Kenny Chesney sang a song about how fast life goes by in his song, "Don't Blink," and there are 100's other songs about making the most of your life and what your given. There are a ton of motivational sayings, such as "Carpe Diem" and "live life to the fullest." People make lists of life goals, or Bucket Lists. This past month, I read about a new type of bucket list called "101 in 1001." The object is to create a large to do list (of sorts) of 101 "things" you would like to accomplish over the span of 1001 days, or roughly 2.75 years. I will be crossing of one of my highest priority life goals this September, when I race in Ironman Wisconsin. Knowing this fact, I have been left wondering, what next - to much dismay of my wife. I debated doing a 101 in 1001 list but realized that majority of the items I wanted to within the 1001 days required to much time to accomplish. Not that the event in itself would take longer than 1001 days, but the shear number of goals, such as running an ultra marathon would require at least a half year of training and preparation and would also not allow me to accomplish other large commitments during that time span. So I decided to lay my life goals out for everyone to read. This will put a sense of accountability to my goals. A public Bucket List, if you will. You can find my public Bucket List under the link at the top of my page titled, quite obviously, Bucket List.

Enjoy the list and never take any day in your life for granted and Carpe Diem!
Be fast, be strong, and carry on!