I was sitting at home one day, 6 years ago, when I realized how quickly my life had changed. Suddenly my husband and I were semi empty nesters. Our 16 year old son “lived” at home , at least I saw evidence of him, dirty dishes, dirty laundry, landfill for a bedroom. Our daughter Julie was a sophmore at Virginia Tech and our daughter Sarah had just gotten married in  a wonderfully fun filled large wedding.

Suddenly I had time for me! What a concept. Okay well that lasted about mmmm, not very long. Then I found were going to be grandparents!!

Holy cow!!!

I was thrilled of course but this is a lot to take in. I never even got the chance to nag for grandchildren.

Oh the deprivation.

Well at 46 I didn’t think I looked like a Grandma but it did make me take stock of what I wanted to do/be with the rest of my life. I had the fleeting thought that if I can be a young grandma then maybe I could stick around and be a great grandma.

Holy Cow Again!

Time to get healthy. And I finally had the time(?) , or at least did not have to cater to 4 other schedules, appetites, likes and dislikes. I gave myself a year. My deadline was my 25th wedding anniversary in July…this was now Oct.

Okay that’s not a year, math is not my thing.

I had been avoiding the scale so I’m not sure what my starting weight was.

I WISH this was the true!

I lost weight…very slowly and I ‘m not quite sure how much since I am not sure where I started.  I’ m  guessing between 20-30lbs.

I   became a Grandma in May..to Nicholas. Such fun. And to fast forward a bit ..we have been blessed to welcome a grand baby every year since ( except this year 2009) for a total of 5 between our 2 daughters)

Okay onto the condensed version. Rediscovered my sense of adventure and decided to train for a 5k ( 3.2 miles) which is pretty adventuresome for someone who has never run. My husband signed up with me although this was a cake walk for him since he has been running for more than  30 years.

One 5k led to another.

And then  I caught a glimpse of the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon on TV. Much to my  surprise there were other triathlon  distances than the grueling Iron Man. One was called a Sprint Tri and it was a half mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride and you guessed it a 5k run!!

And the next one was over our wedding anniversary!!  In Minnesota!

Can you say ADVENTURE.

Nothing says love like sweating together.

So I signed us up without really even knowing what it involved.

Stay tuned…the tri adventure has just begun!