The Amazing 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

I wish you and your family a happy and prosperous new year. The year 2010 has been very eventful and exciting for me and I'd like to share some highlights with you all. On the work front, I switched jobs and am now working for IBM. I work in the sales group for IBM's WebSphere brand products. I continue to make deeper strides in the Healthcare industry and I stay excited at the future prospects. My new accounts are all local so I don't travel as much. Geetika and the kids now see me a little more than what they were accustomed to in the past. Which also lead us to some interesting personal space violation type challenges initially. Things settled down eventually with me learning to get more domesticated ;-). 
As for my sports endeavors, I stay on the track to getting younger each year ;-). But the proof is in the pudding, correct? Please see the attached picture collage.

One of the two pictures in it was taken 6-months ago and the other, 10-years ago. You get a prize for guessing which picture was taken 10 years ago.. left or right? Continuing from my first half Ironman 70.3 mile long Triathlon odyssey in 2009, I went on to compete in three more half Ironman races this year. I improved my personal record by over 90 minutes down to 7-hours and 22 minutes. I intend to compete in a 140.6 mile long full Ironman event this year. It is slated for June 28th 2011 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. As for training to survive the event, I'm four months deep into it. To prepare better, I train three days a week under the guidance of a wonderful professional coach and with a Tri team. My diet is very regimented and lean. Training hard, seven days a week has now become a way of life for me.

On an artistic front, I performed in my first ever theatrical musical "nautanki" play. My daughters got the gift of their life when we adopted  a Labrador puppy dog. My wife Geetika is off to a new career in Information Technology consulting in quality control and business analyst. My older daughter is ~10 years old now. She is a talented singer, pianist and a martial artist. The younger one is ~6-years old and is diligently following her older sister's foot steps which makes logistics a little easier on us. I have attached a picture of the three of them to this note below.

That's all from me. I hope to catch up with you over the next year.

Warm Regards,

Harpal Kochar