Every once in a while, people contact me out of the blue and compliment the blog, which has always put a little pep in my stubby legged step. When I got back from Penticton after racing Ironman Canada, however, I had a new sort of message in my inbox. The sports writer from Northwest Asian Weekly had contacted me to congratulate me on the race and to ask if I’d be interested in being interviewed for the site. Stoked that I’ve never been interviewed for anything non-Internet marketing related, I happily obliged. Apparently the author, Jason Cruz, is also a triathlete and was doing some research on Ironman Lake Stevens 70.3 when he came across my lovely opinion of the race. Thanks to some quick sleuthing, he was able to deduce that I’m somewhat Asian and thus an appropriate fit for the site. Being Korean has finally paid off. Jason may have gotten a full scholarship to UW for being Panamanian, but I got a feature in a regional Asian news website. In your face, suckaaaaa! Anyway, the article is up and chronicles how I got started doing triathlons and my journey to become an Ironman. Check it out here — Self-Proclaimed ‘Mediocre Athlete’ is now an ‘Ironman‘....

My astute readers will notice that the blog looks distinctly different from its original gangsta look since I launched it in 2008. I was never thrilled with the old blog theme and decided it was time for a little Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition. The new design is more visual than Mediocre Athlete 1.0 — each post has a thumbnail that displays all purdy-like on the homepage. Also, I finally figured out how to add threaded comments, so now you can respond to a comment someone’s posted. It’s the wave of the future! Hope you like the new design — I still have to work out a couple of kinks, but overall I’m pleased with the blog’s new aesthetic. Soon I’ll respond to my regularly scheduled posts about crappy workouts and how I’m getting super burned out on Ironman training and have spent more time eating frozen custard than...

Hello, loyal fans (all two of you)! It’s been a while, I know, but that’s what happens when actual work gets in the way of updating my hobby blog that doesn’t help pay my bills. Oh well. I’m back now, with a goal to keep this darn thing updated more often. Here’s what’s been going on since my last post: The back is better… I got some TLC in the form of massage, chiro work, and foam rolley goodness, so huzzah for that. …but the hamstring is not. A combination of weighted one-legged squats (curse you, Eli! *shakes fist*) and lots of run mileage has led to a tight right hammy, right where it meets the pooch butt. I’ve been stretching and icing it, so hopefully it’ll play nice over Christmas break so I can get my 18 miler in. I ran the Las Vegas Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon. Jason did the full and shaved ten freakin’ minutes off his PR, thus capping off a fantastic year of racing for him (Mark has dubbed him “Mr. PR,” which is no joke — I don’t think he had a single bad race all season). I, meanwhile, did two minutes better than the Seattle half in June but was still 2 minutes off my PR. The goal for 2010 is to do a sub-1:50. I think that with my diligent training for Canada I should be able to pull it off. I’m training for a marathon in February. It’s a podunk tiny marathon in Goodyear, Arizona that should only attract a couple hundred runners. The race is February 14th — what better way to celebrate a Hallmark holiday than to run 26.2 miles? This will be my second marathon, and I’m hoping to PR by a lot (about 20-35 minutes). The pipe dream is sub-4 hours, but I’ll be happy with low fours. That’s about it for the time being. I’ll check back in after this weekend’s long run and workouts. Hope you all have a happy holiday and that you receive a stocking full of gu and PRs....

Thus far, Mediocre Athlete has been lovingly read by a whopping dozen or so people: me, Jason, Jason’s parents, Jason’s aunt and uncle, our trainer, and some training buddies. In a nutshell, our readership consists of a handful of people who know us in person. This is unsurprising — it’s not like we expect a giant devoted following of people who eagerly await our posts about how sore our asses are after long rides or how much we stink after lake swims. Thus, imagine my surprise when I received this email a few days ago: Hi Rebecca, My name is Sebastian, I’m 24 yrs old and I am a beginner triathlete who started his first (training)season with a little bit too much enthousiasm. This resulted in my first injury ever of which I am still recovering – grrrr – and which is keeping me from doing any running at all. Technically speaking that makes me a duathlete in stead of a triathlete. (Although I am not sure that swimming combined with biking is officially recognized as duathlon.) But hey, that’s why it’s great to read about your triathlon experiences! It helps me convincing myself that – even with a slow start – eventually I will be able to do a sprint triathlon! And maybe later a 70.3 Ironman! And maybe thereafter … Ok, you’re right, stop dreaming, I’ll just start with the sprint triathlon … Please keep writing your blog, it’s really funny and I’ll keep you posted when I finally get started! Regards, Sebastian Fischer Antwerp, Belgium Holy balls! Sebastian marks a series of firsts for Mediocre Athlete: First reader who we don’t personally know First international reader First person to read our blog and actually get inspired by it (seriously, that’s pretty mind boggling) Thanks for being a fan of the blog, Sebastian! We know you’ll kick ass this season–if Jason and I can do it and survive, you sure as hell can, too. Also, we’re pretty sure that you can count swimming and biking as a duathlon. We categorize stuff as being duathlons all the time; hell, just this weekend we did a duathlon consisting of “eat a breakfast burrito” and “watch football games.” I’m happy to report that both of us finished with strong times....

After a freshman season of triathlon races, countless skipped workouts, and entirely too many late night pizza deliveries, MediocreAthlete.com has finally arrived. This site will serve as a diary of sorts for two casual athletes as they experience the joys of long workouts, grueling ice baths, soggy runs in Capitol Hill, smelly swims in Greenlake, numerous bike mechanical failures, diving headfirst onto snowy mountains, tripping on trails, and everything in between. We’ll do our best to provide updates on our workouts, race reports, and anything else we can share in an amusing, self-deprecating manner. We hope you enjoy living vicariously through our misery. (Hey, someone’s...