The Initiation:

It all started when my brother in-law "to be" was planning on doing the Clemson Sprint Triathlon in 2004. This came at a time when I was wanting to challenge myself before I finished grad school and would have to enter the "real world"(marriage, dog, mortgage). It sounded like a ridiculously tough feat but somehow had an incredible allure to me.

Please keep in mind: as my grandfather says, "son , you are built like an Army mule."
1) I do not have a lean cyclist's body structure and had not ridden since middle school bmx...
2) When I was forced to swim on the swim team in elementary school--well I swam in the "exhibition" lane where it did not really count but they wanted me to feel "part of the team"...
3) I have always hated running--so much that in military school I felt lucky if I passed the 2 mile run on the PT test.
I liked the non-cardio sports: weight-lifting, wrestling...any sport in which I could stop and catch my breath.

Completing a triathlon would take me learning and doing 3 different skills that I was not born for, did not enjoy, and really, really were terrible at doing. My attitude at the time was kind of like the scene in Good Will Hunting when Matt Damon's character is asked why he picked the wrench for his dad to beat him with. He responds with "cause f%*k him, that's why." I guess I started this Quest because I felt the need for some personal growth and I had my own "beatings" to try make sense of..."cause f*$k them, that's why!"

So I picked a training plan off the net, bought an old steel road bike off E-bay with shifters on the down tubes, begged an old friend to teach me how to swim and borrowed my little brother's goggles.

I was off on my Quest.