Meet Mark

My name is Mark Montanaro. I'm absolutely thrilled and honored to have been selected for Pacific's Ironman challenge! I'm still shaking my head wondering what I got myself into...

A little bit about me:  I'm married to an amazing and supportive wife. We have two young daughters (One of which has already competed in two Mossman kid's triathlons!). Grew up in Norwalk and now reside in Weston. I studied business and supply chain management at Northeastern University. I work for, and help manage, an IT consultancy based in Westport. Our primary focus is on what is known as Business Intelligence. We partner closely with companies like SAP, Microsoft, and Qlikview.

I was never a die-hard athlete growing up. Although I think I realized I was a bit of an endurance junkie when I joined the cross country team in high school. I may not have been the fastest or best runner on the team. But on those long runs was where I got my first real glimpse at being "in the zone" and I loved it! I grew up skiing and eventually crossed over to snowboarding. In college I was on the crew team (4-man) and even had a chance to row in the Head of Charles. It wasn't until my early 30s when I did my first sprint triathlon where I fell in love with the sport. On a 15 year old mountain bike I finished the Mossman sprint in Norwalk. Since that first race,  I've been doing about five triathlons per season for the last 3 years. To date, I have not done anything bigger than an Olympic distance tri or 1/2 marathon. I was supposed to run the NY Marathon last year which is now deferred to 2014.

I'm hoping this challenge will ultimately make me a better person both mentally, physically and spiritually. I also hope to inspire others to get involved with the sport of triathlon. As for actual goals and times for the 140.6 I have not had a chance to really think through that yet. To cross the finish line within the allotted 17 hours would have to be goal # 1 . I'll report back on a future blog post with more specifics.

As Eminem once said - "You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, cause opportunity comes once in a lifetime!" The Ironman challenge will be my Mt Everest climb opportunity for 2013 no question about it.