November 14, 2004
 |  44 Comments

My name is Carol Scheible. When I was 20, my cousin started doing triathlons. I remember thinking “That sounds really cool, but I could never do that – I’m not athletic enough”.

Twenty years later I was overweight and out of shape, and generally miserable. I decided to make a commitment to follow a healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life. I lost a bunch of weight without any exercise. Then I hit a plateau where I could not lose any more.

So…I decided to start running. While searching for run training programs online, I ran across this great plan called Couch to 5k at a website called Beginner Triathlete. That old thought about how cool triathloning sounded came back to me …it was tucked away in the back of my mind all those years. This time, instead of thinking “I can’t do it”; I thought “I will do it!”.

After finishing the Couch to 5k training plan, I added biking and swimming to my workouts, and completed my first triathlon in April 05. I am now hooked on the sport of triathlon and am fitter than I have ever been in my life.

My brother, Mark, has been doing triathlons for several years and he is a great help to me – giving me lots of advice and support and answering all my neophyte questions. Thanks, Mark!

My brother-in-law, Tom, is a runner and fitness enthusiast and has always been an inspiration to me.

I’ve recently met a guy on my master’s swim team named Jon. He’s a master’s elite triathlete and actually wins races. He’s very inspiring and is kind enough to share his wisdom with me. He says all it takes is persistance. I think he’s just being modest and is very talented. What they heck, tho, I’ll dream big and tell myself that maybe I can win someday too.

The site Beginner Triathlete is a wonderful resource for triathletes – both novice and veteran. Also, read my post on Getting Started in Triathlon.


Here is a picture of me in Spring 04, as a couch potato. This was after a lost a bunch of weight, but before I started my triathlon training journey.
Here I am in Sept 05 at mile 12 of the VA Beach 1/2 marathon
Read Race Report, 2005
Read Race Report, 2006

Email me: ncskibum@gmail.com