These words are from the offical toast of North Carolina. If you are admitted to the Order of the the Long Leaf Pine you have "The special privilege to propose" this toast any where in the world.

I am not in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and I doubt they will evey invite my Yankee behind.

I do love that line. And reading it for the first time three months ago changed my existence in North Carolina.  I started training for my first Triathlon with my neighbors. My first race is tomorrow! I am stoked, the goal is to finish, because this is just the beginning.

The training has been amazing, there is a large group of people training for something (the NY marathon, an assortment of Tri's, bike tours...) in my neighborhood in Cary, so it is always easy to find a ride to a race, a group to ride with or someone to ask advice (I do this a lot!)

The support of the neighborhood is great, my wife and a couple of neighbors now get up and either run, bike or swim every morning at 6:45 (which means I have to get up at 5am to train : () she feels great, it is very cool to listen to her excited about training.

Out of all things I expected to happen when I moved to Cary, I can assure you swim, bike, run was not on the agenda. The quality of life just sucks you in and now I may be addicted.

The jury is still out on whether I started strong or weak and it will be a long journey and someone else will make that decision. I can tell you one thing, I feel really, really good!