What a Difference a Year Makes

Well it appears to me that John Lennon was right. Life truly is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

A year ago I was well into my preparation for Ironman Canada 2011. If you're among my handful of followers (Thanks so much!) you may recall that went very well. The athletic plan after that was to focus on the Fargo Marathon in May in the hope of obtaining a Boston qualifying time for 2013. Although Fargo was to be my first Full I was pretty confident of being able to go 3:30 based on my Ironman performance.

Well October came and I had that little incident on my motorcycle where I fractured my scapula, clavicle and 8 ribs. I knew this was going to make my marathon plan a lot more challenging. As it turned out my recovery went very well, my running came back nicely and even my swim is getting acceptable. Perhaps I had a shot.

A few weeks ago our CEO came to my office. He rarely does that. He told me about a situation. My counterpart in our European office is taking a 6 month parental leave and the company wants me to fill in for him while he's away.

So I'm writing this on an airplane from Minneapolis to Paris. By the time I post it I may already be in our office in Nuremberg, Germany. It's going to be a big adventure for me. I've worked in Europe quite a bit but I've never stayed more than 2 weeks and I've certainly never lived there.

One thing I see as an upside is the opportunity to blog more regularly and about a situation that is a bit outside my comfort zone. I hope you take a few minutes now and again to look in on me and see what I'm up to.

I wish you all the best
Tom O

As a footnote I apologize for the lack of photos. I hope to rectify that in upcoming posts.