Al Dockery is a self-described "recovering writer" who stumbled into running and triathlon several years ago after a frank and somewhat-scary discussion with his doctor. 

His initial goal was to run one 10K per year, but he quickly eclipsed that mark as his newfound love of endurance sport propelled him to try longer and more challenging races. 

With his blog, SwimBikeStumble, Al chronicles his own successes and setbacks in triathlon, and shares some of the humor he's found along the way. (One of our favorites is from his "Seven Signs You May Be an Open Water Swimer" is Sign #2 "A satellite image of your half Ironman swim track spells out the word: potato. Yes it was a point to point river swim.")

Al is currently publishing a blog series for new triathletes, so if you're new to the sport (or know someone who is), send them to his blog to get a simple and light-hearted guide to how to get started in what can be an intimating sport. He's also working to publish a cycling-based novel, stay tuned for updates on that!