IronMatt. My defense is impregnable.

Soo.... I know it's not quite March yet, but for some reason I felt like blogging.  So here you go.

Amazingly I can actually report that I am still in the same major, Recreation Management.  For those of you who don't know, the Rec Management major at BYU is a part of the Marriott School of Business.  Yeah, I know, that's pretty legit.  I just thought I'd mention that and boost my image a little bit (my image can always stand a little boosting).  It's still working out well for me.  The classes are laid back but still informative and interesting.  Unfortunately, I am no longer 100% optimistic about having an April graduation.  After this semester I have 3 more classes to finish and an internship to do. And unless I can squeeze all of those into winter semester, it looks like I'll more likely be graduating in August.  But I'm OK with that, if that's what ends up happening.  I'll just be happy if I have a job lined up for after graduation. (fingers crossed)

In other news, a few months ago I decided that I was hardcore and signed up for a half Ironman here in Provo.  Not surprisingly, when I mentioned this fact to family and friends the information was received with much laughter and a series of inquiries such as "Do you even know how far a half Ironman is?" and "Have you ever swam, biked, or ran that far?".  I had no idea that I was associated with so many doubting Thomas's.  True, I had never actually swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles, or ran 13.1 miles, and in fact, I hadn't biked since my mission 5 years ago or swam for anything but recreation in my life.  But, I mean, how hard could it be, right?  So me and my buddy Steven started training.  Turns out that swimming is actually pretty hard to do.  Who would have thought?  But I was still determined to show all of the naysayers a thing or two about how manly I really am.  I also bought a road bike online and went out a few times for some training (this included a spectacular crash while I was getting onto the bike.  Pretty awesome.  Unfortunately no one else was around to see it).  As part of the training Steven and I did a sprint triathlon, which is about 1/4th the distance of a half Ironman, about a month before the half Ironman was scheduled.  In spite of the fact that I had done a lot of swim training in the pool at the gym, it turns out that open water swimming and getting punched by 30-40 people all around you is a little different than swimming laps in your own lane at the gym.  But other than that the race went pretty smoothly (please note that I am using the term "smoothly" relatively loosely).

Even though I had done some training, I don't think it would be too far of a stretch to assume that I had done the least amount of training of everyone at the race.  I didn't really know how fast I should be expecting to finish, but I settled on shooting for 7 hours.  After a swim that went surprisingly well, a bike ride that was fun but long and painful towards the end, and a run that was murder and caused thoughts of suicide on more than one occasion, I managed to finish the race in 6:49:40.  And yes, the rumors are true.  Of the 98 women that competed, I beat 12 of them.  TAKE THAT WOMEN!!!!!!  Of all of the rewards that came from training and finishing the race, such as being in peak physical condition from the training and the satisfaction of completing such a tough task, the most rewarding thing that came out of it all was most definitely this picture.

Bam!!!

The oddest part of it all is that, despite the fact that I am now half iron, half man, all Ironman; I'm still single and not married.  What's a guys supposed to do?  Jeez.

Now to close this post, a quick update on my bowling goal of beating my sister Sara's score of 237.  I bowled a 230 the other day.  Getting closer.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay.  Please visit again soon.  And by soon, I mean in a year or so from now when I update again with a new post.  Until next time amigos.