Looking back, forward

As 2008 winds down, I had the opportunity to get up and snowshoe this past weekend in the Colorado high country. Many challenges and triumphs can be recalled from the past year. Physical, mental, emotional challenges and triumphs were all present... each provided an opportunity to grow, because by overcoming each and every one, a life experience was gained. Isn't that what this game of life is all about? 2009 will undoubtedly provide further opportunities to challenge certainly what my body and mind are capable of enduring. The more and more I train, the more my beliefs are confirmed that exercise is the key to so much in life... it clears the mind of stress, allows the mind to focus and assists in maintaining a healthy attitude - I have a saying that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. Almost 11 years to the day, I packed up a Penske truck in Cincinnati and drove half way across the country to establish a new home in Colorado. From time to time, some friends ask what drove me out here. There is one thing that drove me to Colorado and one thing only - diabetes. To live out my dreams, I became convinced it was going to be critical to maintain a healthy life and I had the good fortune to listen to a voice that was telling me the West needed to be my home. Over the past 11 years, there are so many events that have confirmed those thoughts. It's not a place for everyone, but it's been the right place for me at the right time. As a result of moving to a new place, it opened my eyes to new ways of accomplishing things. I've explored new places (47 of the 50 states, western Europe, Thailand, Nepal), I've camped out in remote mountains explored by Lewis & Clark, slept in the back of the car in the Utah desert, ridden public transit through rural Thailand, walked the streets of Kathmandu, seen the depths of Death Valley to the heights of Mt. Everest and come to appreciate life's challenges with renewed enthusiasm. It just goes to prove that diabetes can't really stop you from doing anything. Without diabetes, who knows what I would have ever pushed myself to see and experience.

In 2009, I will begin a new chapter by competing in the Ironman. I haven't had the opportunity to say much about this Triabetes project, but the weekend down in Arizona in November was such a remarkable experience. Our Triabetes team represents, to me, so many of the positive qualities that we sometimes take for granted in a world that can too often become cynical. There are some truly remarkable backgrounds from which my teammates come and we have some terrific resources (from medical staff to world class coaches to equipment) from which to draw throughout the year as we train, as we fall down, as we pick ourselves up, as we lean on each other, and as each of us compete and cross that finish line next November. As we broke bread in November as a team, we joked at one point about what our weakest discipline was... I think it was Seb who blurted out all of them. It was perfect and could not have summarized my feelings any better. I've never run or swam regularly and I just manage on a bike. I've never been a big New Year's reveler or goal setter - but, I have never looked so eagerly at the beginning of a new year.

Happy New Year and don't let anything stop you from pursuing your dreams (not even a bad BG)!