Hi, all! I'm new to these boards--what a fun discovery. I'm 45 years old, did my first triathlon 2 years ago. I was a an active kid, then life happened, and I became completely alienated from my body. By 40, I was "crippled" (my perspective) with chronic pelvic pain from endometriosis. I was 30# overweight, and going through a nasty divorce. I made some new friends, and tagged along when one did the Accenture Chicago Triathlon. I saw old people, fat people, a woman in a clown suit, and thought, "I wonder if I could do that?"

You know the answer, of course! NO! Not in a clown suit! But YES! In regular tri clothes! My first tri was completely un-researched. A friend and I did it together. We picked the Lake Zurich triathlon , an international distance, because, well, we didn't know anything. We didn't know there was such a thing as a "sprint" distance. So we swam across Lake Zurich, rode the hills of Lake County, and ...walked 6.25 mi. We were dead last across the finish line, but the organizers put our picture up on the website with congratulations to all the first-timers. I was bitten by the tri-bug when I did it again the following year.

This year I've done two sprints, one international distance tri, a metric century ride, two 5Ks runs, a 1/2 marathon, and the Chicago Marathon. If you're going to have a mid-life crisis, turning into an athlete is not a bad one to have. I'm doing the 8K Turkey Trot on, you guessed it, Thanksgiving Day.

So, the title of my post--the runny nose. It's awful. During the marathon, I rubbed my nose raw wiping it. I use a nasal spray (Ipratroprium bromide) and Sudafed. I put lanolin under my nose. I don't know what else to do. I try to carry tissues with lotion, which is better than wiping it on my sleeve. Any suggestions? It gets really painful.

Mostly I am tickled pink to be an athlete. There's still so much to learn. This is the first winter when I'm seriously committing to training all winter. My goal is to do a 1/2 Ironman. After the 100K bike ride, I was sure I had no desire to do the Ironman. Kudos to those of you who do!

I'm a certified nurse-midwife, which makes for some creative scheduling of the training. For example, today I meant to run before clinic, but got called in early, then tried to sleep for a few hours, because I'm on-call tonight from 10 PM to 10 AM at the hospital. Like anyone else with a busy life, it requires some thinking ahead and committment to doing the runs when I say I'm going to do them. The swim is my weakest area, and the hardest to train in. I have to plan pool time when there's no kids' classes or pool aerobics or whatever going on at my YMCA. Again, planning and committment.

Looking forward to any tips about the nose, and really enjoying reading all your stories!

Lise