Gonna Sing it Like it's My Birthday...

Ok, you guys got me. I had no idea you were planning a birthday surprise party with a homemade cake with an "over the hill" candle. The thing is, as a triathlete, you'll learn that when you're over the hill, it's a good thing, because it means you get to "age-up" and means you get to descend down the hill with the speed of knowledge, patience and understanding.

As my good friend and Triathlete Magazine CFO said, "Birthdays are just the celebrations of making another lap around the sun." As a triathlete, this "lap around the sun" analogy works well - and it made me think about what sights and achievements decorated my last lap around the sun.

There were triathlons, new people, new business - and even some fleeting romances. I discovered some things, and taught some things. Each year at some point, I bring my journals that I've been writing in since I was 11 years old out to the desert and read them in full - and what a moment of self reflection. I love the part about my first triathlon, the part about living and training in Boulder for the summer and the part where I crashed in the Carlsbad Triathlon, ripping the skin of my arm down to the bone.

After all, life is kind of a long distance triathlon, filled with many transitions. By recording your thoughts and reflections through the transitions of your life, you will learn and grow. So keep a journal.

We are the first generation who will have great, great, great, great, great grandchildren that will be able to peer deeply into our lives, by seeing archives of our social networking profiles, youtube videos, and by reading our e-mails from when we were kids, when they are kids, in the year 2425.