5 years ago today, I competed in my 2nd IRONMAN World Championship in Kona and competed against the greatest endurance athletes in the world after having earned my spot with a 2nd place finish at Ironman Arizona 2018. Today, I did something even harder. I attempted to pass the CPA Audit exam.

Since my last post in August, Fiona and I lost our 13 year old furchild, Sydney. It was heartbreaking. Then, a week ago, I received a promotion as a Senior Finance Manager with NGSRI, a $400M development program to revamp the Stinger Missiles being used in the Ukraine. Today, I took the 4 hour Audit Exam followed by a 3KM swim, 2 hour bike ride, and a 5KM Brick run in 22:15 (7:11/mile). Monday, I start the new job (still with Raytheon after 17 years), and Friday we go to Vegas to compete, spectate, and meet Olympic champions and some of the best Pro athletes in the world in the T100 World Tour.

I studied nearly every day since we came back from Cancun in May and improved my studying over FAR that I took in May but certainly had some stressful times with the loss of Sydney. AUD was “easier” and similar to my finance career in Program Cost and Controls. But it is a lot. And, it’s impossible to become an expert in anything in 4 months. So, I am not confident and a bit deflated, but I KNOW what it means to work hard and achieve something few do. It took me many times to get to Kona over 4 years, and that could be the same here, but I will continue to keep fighting; it better not take 4 years, though!)

Going forward, Fiona and I are both racing this week, I will take FAR for the 2nd time in 7 weeks, and then I we will head to New Zealand and Australia for the 70.3 World Championship and Christmas. With both scores not available until Jan 29th, it will be a waiting game, but I will go back to AUD and retake probably in March.

Next year, the goal will repeat, pass FAR, and AUD. Fiona missed out on Boston by less than a minute, so we will try to BQ at the Buckeye Marathon in Phoenix in January <3:05, <3:35, Memorial Day we are going to the Grand Canyon for 3 nights, July we are signed up for 70.3 Musselman near Moms house in NYS, August we will do Mountainman Half in Flagstaff, then Maui for a week in September, North Carolina for Thanksgiving, and Mt Lemmon for Christmas. 2025 is going to be a great year!

To reward myself I bought a beautiful IRONMAN Breitling Swiss watch. I had been eyeing it since the partnership a few years ago but my promotion incentivized me to do something extra special for myself. BONUS- I saved 27% at jomashop.com my go to website over the last 20 years.

Live life in balance, and be a little crazy. You only got one shot.