Winner #2 of the Battle At Midway, ‘08 Goals contest is Aaron Jordin. Below is Aaron’s story and ‘08 goals. Stay tuned for winner #3 of 4.

August 9th, 2007 I arrived at home after racing at a local road race, the Huntsville 100. The outcome was a similar one for the 2007 season. I was racing in the Cat. 1/2 group and got dropped before the last climb and ended up rolling in way back, out of the money and points. I had been racing competitively for 8 years on the road and was on a very competitive team, but had lost my fire and desire. I arrived home from the race and began venting to my wife. She immediately stopped me and told me she was sick of my bitching and moaning about road racing and that if I wasn’t having fun I should do something different.

Two hours later I’m on-line and signed up for the Kokepelli Triathlon. Never mind the fact that I didn’t know how to swim and the only “running” I did was the obligatory vacation runs during the winter with my wife - maybe 3 miles max and only 3-4 times a year. I decided then and there to focus on something new and that target was triathlon. 10 days later I had my first swim lesson (Sara Watchhorn is an amazing coach) and had purchased a new bike to race on ( still explaining to my wife why I had to sell my ‘05 Felt DA and get the P3 Carbon). Running was a challenge but I was setting new PRs every run - really not hard when my tempo runs were run for 3 miles at a 9 minute pace.

Full of excitement I decided to jump in early and race the Yuba Tri Sprint. The race went well. I wasn’t last out of the water and I actually had a competitive race. That was it. I was hooked. Ended up doing the Kokopelli Tri Olympic race but as you know the race was canceled after the swim. This little bump in the road catapulted me into full on crazy obsessed tri-addict Aaron. Within a few weeks I decided that I was committed and signed up for the California 70.3.
Winter went well, I attended master’s at Steiner, ran and ran and ran and even started hanging out with other tri obsessed people. My road racing buddies now call me Speedo and give me a hard time every time they see me - trying to understand how I could go from racing my bike 50-60 times a year to doing bricks on my weekends and only racing once a month or so.

California went well, I managed to achieve my goal of going under 5 hours (54 seconds to spare) and am committed to a full season of 1/2 and Olympic length races.

Being a tri-addict has done fantastic things for my health, my attitude and my life. I’m spending more time with my family on the weekends, my wife and I train together (she’s already a triathlete), my kids get to go to the pool a lot more, I’ve been healthy all winter and I’m generally in a great mood. Thank goodness for that fateful August day and for healthy addictions.

Aaron Jordin

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