haha. So many things, all the time. So many dreams, so much going on. I've grown so much in the past year, with eerything I've been able to experience. I owe so much of it to Mom and Dad and Julia, and all our family. I change a litle bit with every experience. It'll be one calendar year in a month, since I raced Ironman Canada in Penticton. With everything I experience, I dream more, I dream bigger. I'm sorry, that's who I am. If I can achieve A, I can achieve A+1 and then I'll achieve that and realize that I can achieve A+2. See how that works?
Random Timeline:
August 2007:
Move out of home to Daly
September 2007:
Start back at school in nutrition program
Step down as manager of Bayshort to go to assistant manager at Kanata with Matt
Matt leaves so I move to assistant manager of Orleans as I didn't like the new manager they hired in Kanata
November 2007:
Left GNC after almost 5 years for Popeye's
December 2008:
On my birthday: got my tattoo, which still means so much to me, AND found out from Team Diabetes that I had to do everything in 2008 rather than 2009 as I had originally signed up for
March 2008:
Had Team D dinner at Coasters Seafood in Market, raised the majority of my target, from family and friends
April 2008:
Move to Huntsville, finding a place and jobs thanks to Jody and Carole. :)
May 2008:
Temporarily moving home and going back to work at Popeye's as my job at Deerhurst didn't start til the end of May.
Running my first marathon, moving back to Huntsville and starting my life there
June - Mid August:
Train and race around Ontario (Huntsville, Peterborough, Ottawa) and see Julia and the fam run a 10k on Canada Day!
August 24th:
A dream come true. Raced and completed my first Ironman. It was a dream day, couldn't have asked for anything more. My own achievement was awesome, but I'll NEVER ever forget that feeling of seeing people finish til all hours of the night. I have goosebumps right now. It made me want to live in Penticton, so that I can experience that feeling every year.
September 14th, 2008:
Raced Muskoka 70.3. Was proud to be a part of this inaugural event. Was proud that it was in my "hometown" and my place of work was hosting it! It gave me a sort of "behind the scenes" experience and a great sense of pride when my results were posted in the back hallway of the resort.
October - January:
PLANNING, PLANNING, PLANNING. Getting ready for the greatest adventure of our lives.
January to now:
Australia day aquathon and day in Sydney
Mojo Surf trip in Crescent head
6 Foot marathon at Blue mountains
Volunteering at Ironman Port MacQuarie, the first Ironman I ever saw on television, and what got me excited about and interested in attempting the distance.
Bali, an amazing experience, THIRD continent I've been in!
Canberra <-- Julia and Jared's first half marathon!
Gold Coast <-- Julia's first marathon, and seeing her realize the same things I have. it's achievable, and so is so much more! And she wants more! :)
Beyond this we try to take advantage of every moment we have here. We go on countless walks around town, to the beach, wherever. It's half over already and we don't want to waste a minute.
A few years ago I would have NEVER thought I was capable of running a marathon, let alone preceeding it with 3.8km of swimming (aka WWF wrestling) and 180 cycling through mountains and valleys. I did it. Not only did I do it, but as I crossed the finish line, I was literraly thinking about how to go faster, or farther. See, I tend to give myself about 2 minutes to basque in my glory of accomplishing my goal and then I'm thinking of bigger and better. After that I looked towards coming here and doing this education thing, making it all work wasn't the easiest, but mom and dad helped out massive (and continue to do so). Moving ot the other side of the planet ain't the easiest thing to do, but it's achievable when you have the kind of support crew I have, in family and Julia. i'm really not sure if I'd have had the confidence to come over here if I didn't have Julia on my team. She gives me the confidence to tackle all sorts of things, because I always have this feeling that no matter what, no matter hard I fall, or fail at something I have her and she's what matters most to me, so life is always good. So coming here was a big deal for sure, but at the same time it wasn't, and just like IMC, now that we're here and settled it doesn't seem like the huge, impossible, outta this world idea. Then I saw this marathon called the 6Foot Track marathon in the Blue Mountains, "Australia's Toughest Marathon". WOW! I FRIGGIN' DID IT MAN! And did alright also! I want more! I want to go further! I want to go faster! I never feel more alive then when I'm at that point where I'm about to break, mentally and decide not to quit. I crave that moment. I crave that feeling at the moment of realization that what I thought might be my breaking point, isn't. So now the impossible challenge is to run from the Opera House to My House, 100km, Goal: 10 Hours. Will I break? Maybe, but I doubt it, because others have done it, so I can too. Then next year, next September, I'm going to try and run 220km in 24 hours. :)
Wanna know a secret? I've started a bucket list. You know like in the movie. I've started writing down a list of achievements, or a list of things I want to do and see before I die. Maybe I'll achieve all of them, maybe I'll achieve some of them. We'll see. The list includes a mix of basic things like marry the girl of my dreams (Julia), have kids, have a solid job that I enjoy and can find meaning and purpose in. But it also includes HUGE dreams. One of my biggest dreams, which I'm pretty hell bent on accomplishing by some point in my life, is to start my own charity, and raise $1,000,000. I have a rough idea of what my charity will be about. I've learnt a ton about the sociology of education this year. It forces you to be a little less ignorant to the socio-economic nature of education, and how children of the privileged society have so many more educational resources than those who are in a lower income bracket. I want my charity to help give some less fortunate kids the same chance as anyone else. I've appreciated my own opportunities that I've been afforded in education because of where I come from and who my mom and dad are and I think every kid is born with the same potential and this is a huge limiting factor what a person can make of their life. A quote from one of my textbooks says something like "a person's socio-economic standing has much to with the making of their life". That makes no sense, but it's something like that. What you're born into, in terms of social class has a huge impact on what you can achieve in life, more or less. Anyways, that's what I want to do. I figure, if I can get company's to donate say a dollar a lap for my race next september and I manage to run that 220k, that's over 500 laps! If I can get a bunch of those types of pledges, just imagine the motivation I'll have to run just ONE MORE LAP!
I dream big, I know. My thoughts are completely random, and chaotic. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Julia gets off work in 3 mintues. I gotta get down there to meet her!
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