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One Year Blogging Anniversary

One Year Blogging Anniversary

by Nicole on August 23, 2010

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A year ago this past weekend, I decided to start this blog. You see I had been reading blogs since before I left for Germany from Tucson about 3 years ago. I started reading Diary of an Amateur Triathlete. It was an eloquent smooth flowing blog, and her writing was so inspiring. I would read her blog on my lunch breaks and felt completely compelled to start training for a triathlon. She was also a science geek like myself, but she wrote like some English major in college: A LOT more descriptive than a typical science/engineering nerd. She wrote about her feelings regarding training and accomplishing things she didn’t think she could accomplish. That could be me, I thought.

Triathlon training began. I SUCKED at swimming. I remember swimming 25 meters in the pool and being completely out of breath. My husband, then boyfriend, stepped in for help. He has to know how to swim really well for his job, and he was patient with me. I read Total Immersion, and that helped me so much with my swimming. By the way, if you are not the best swimmer, and you still haven’t read this book, you are doing yourself a huge injustice. READ IT!

Anyway, after a few months training, I was all ready for my first triathlon. Then, all hell broke loose. My husband, then boyfriend, got orders to Germany…and he had to leave in a month. They gave us a one month notice! WTF! We had to sell our house, make the decision to get married–then get married, quit my job that I was so proud of, and move to another country in ONE month. Um, hello gray hair at 24!!  The only day that we could get married happened to be the same day of my triathlon that I had worked so hard for. Needless to say, I got married to my man of my dreams instead of completing my triathlon.

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I moved to Germany and was really depressed my first few months there.

I missed my family.

I missed my 40-60 hour workweeks that made me think.

I missed feeling like I was contributing to the household financially.

I felt isolated from everything I ever knew.

My Spanish did not help me in Germany. hehe

It was freaking cold and wet. I missed wearing flipflops in Tucson year around.

I had lost 10 pounds of muscle since the move because I was never hungry and pretty much stopped working out.

I decided that although I could not change the situation that I was in, I needed to change my reality that I was in. I was the only one who could make me happy. NOT my husband. NOT my family. NOT my friends. ME. It was all on me.

In addition to Diary of an Amateur Triathlete, I started reading blogs again for inspiration to get myself to the gym again like Marit’s blog (she is REALLY FUNNY by the way). I started going to spin class again. It felt so good to be moving again!

I started meeting like minded people like myself at the gym who liked working out. My group of friends started to grow, and I actually liked hanging out with these people. I started training and completed another few half marathons and my first triathlon FINALLY. ;)

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far cry from my last triathlon. ;)

Finally, through The Healthy Tipping Point, I came across the Healthy Living Summit that had some of their sessions online. Like a lot of people who started a blog around that time, I watched one of the sessions over how to start your own blog, and I thought to myself: I could do that! Maybe.

These bloggers seemed like magical perfect people who were great writers, and it was really intimidating. I never thought of myself as a writer, and my first few months of posting were pretty boring to tell you the truth. I wrote about my daily food intake like many bloggers start off doing with some training stories mixed in, but after a while, discovered that just wasn’t me. I love food, don’t get me wrong, but the thought of photographing all my food was revolting to me. I don’t like waiting to eat!

Then, I started getting emails telling me how inspiring I was. Me?

  • I was the completely un-athletic geek in high school who someone threw a fit over in P.E. when I was the last one left to be picked to be on a team, and since they were the second team picking people, they had to take me.
  • I was the girl who always got hit in the face with some type of sports ball in P.E.
  • I was the girl who got made fun of because my legs were abnormally long for my body thus I was always “ready for a flood” with my pants, feet were too big, thus embarassing clumsyness ensued.
  • I was the girl who tried out for the swim team when they were pretty much taking anyone and didn’t make it.
  • I was the girl running 12 minute miles in P.E. Let me rephrase that, I was dead after running one mile in 12 minutes. My coach just shook his head in disgust I remember.
  • The first three years of high school NO ONE asked me out for a date or for that matter, no one seemed interested in dating me in the least.
  • Although, I had gotten over social awkwardness with the guys since high school, I still felt insecure about my athleticism.
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Thus, real writing from the heart came about. My experiences in working out and pushing past that comfort zone came into play with some food posts sprinkled in have seemed to work for me. I also blogged a little about my personal life.

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My blog is always evolving, and I like where it is headed. Sometimes, I feel weird for sharing things on the blog that I wouldn’t share with some of my acquaintances, but somehow it is therapeutic.

Blogging gave me a voice that I never knew I had. There are great people in the blogging community, and I have made many friends or “blends” since then. I’m so happy that I decided to enter this welcoming and encouraging world of blogging. I have come a long way in my athletic life (currently training for a Half Ironman) and blogging, but there is still a lot of improvement that I can make to my writing and training for that matter, and I hope you will continue to join me for the journey. There will be lots more fun, entertaining, stressed, racing, crazy times to be had.


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Happy Running, Swimming, Cycling ;)

P.S. The winner of the CSN gift certificate giveaway is: Heather from Where’s the Beach?!!! Congrats! Send me your email address at geektunedathlete@gmail.com, and I will get you what you need for the prize!

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