It started with a wild, slightly ridiculous dream in high school: finish a marathon someday. At the time, I couldn't run 5 kilometers without stopping to catch my breath.

Years later, that dream turned into an obsession with triathlon, and Ironman especially. But I kept it at arm's length. “That's for other people,” I told myself. Elite athletes. Not someone like me.

Then, one day, I stopped waiting to feel ready and just started. Small. Unglamorous. One run, then another. What changed wasn't talent. It was showing up on the days I didn't feel like it.

That first gasping 5k eventually became a marathon, then a full-distance Ironman, and now 100+ km alpine ultra races through the Alps. I'm still not fast. I don't think I ever will be. But I keep showing up, and that turned out to matter more.

Most of my week is spent behind a desk. Endurance sport became my way back outside, into the mountains and into myself. I never thought I was the kind of person who could do any of this. That's exactly the point. Start small, stay consistent, and you'll be surprised what turns out to be possible.