Defining yourself...

I want to start by thanking you for all of the prayers and notes of encouragement. They help and I will let my mom know. This is hardest on her.

Ok so today's blog... My wife and I were discussing what would be the next step for me after Ironman. Yes Ironman training takes away a lot of family time. I told the wife that I was trying to define myself by how well I do at these tri events and against some of my workout partners. I don't think Ironman is my type of race that I would be able to do once a year or even more to be competitive, due to time constraints and family time. I like the Olympic distance personally. Then her comes the wife with her wisdom.... She said that triathlons don't define you as a person. Yes they can be a part of your life but there are some things that need to define you as a person before triathlon. She stated them and I totally felt like crap because these things have fallen to the wayside over the last few months. Here they are:
1) I am a son of God that believes that Christ came to this earth to die for everyone's sins so that we can be with our Father in Heaven.
2) A Husband (She still loves me and wants me to finish this Ironman!)
3) A Father (Working on this!)
4) A Triathlete (Always working on this one!)
5) A Friend
6) A Working man (I still have a job so I can write this for the mean time!)

So after this discussion and the wife stating that she wants me to finish this Ironman and do this best I can at it, I was pumped. I know she is behind me 100% she just hates to see me struggle with my other walks of life that should be defining me (#1 through #3). I can wake up at 445 and get going on a mid-week run but working on connecting with God through prayer and reading his word has been a struggle lately. She knows this by the way I have been effected by outside things, such as training partners not calling to invite me on rides (in the past they have been blasting out 30 mile rides when I need to do 60 plus so I haven't been going with them), and I am glad we talked about it. I am focused on Ironman. I am enjoying the training. It is hard but I am actually surprised on how much I enjoy it. After I finish this race, I will go from there on what I want to do with triathlons but I will be working my butt off on #1 through #3 for sure!

So what defines you guys or what should be defining you guys?

Have a good day!