something new

I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for the support of all of my peers, my family, and my friends, from close and from afar. I feel so honored to have been able to do this because you all donated to LLS to get me here. I am so blessed to have the ability to do a triathlon and to have such amazing supporters!

OK, now for the story!

Went to bed Friday night about 9:15… the earliest I have been to bed since I was probably 12. I slept with the windows open since it was really nice and cool Thursday night, but apparently that wasn’t the best choice since the street light coming in and the sound of all the cars zooming by through the apartment complex woke me up about every 2 or 3 hours. And each time I would wake up, it’s like blood would rush to my head and I had a splitting headache for a few seconds. Weirdest thing ever.

So the alarm goes off at 4:00 am. Snooze til about 4:15 or so and get up, make some coffee, etc. Headache still splitting, so I took some ibuprofen and drank lots and lots of water. Decided it would be a good idea to shave the legs since it had been a couple days and I knew how I’d get chilly from the swim and they would grow even longer. So that was task #1. Went through the checklist and threw everything into a couple of bags, not sure how much space I had in my transition area to use, but I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries, so I packed as lightly as possible. Ran down to the car after I realized it was about 5:20 and I was meeting a friend at 5:30. Got on the turnpike, and about 2 miles down the road, panicked thinking I had forgotten the sheet of stickers that I had to put on my helmet and my bags. Pulled off the side of the highway with my flashers on and searched my bag in the back seat. I had it with me, thank God, so I got back in and headed on to the lake.

I met up with my friend, Emily Sutton (the one I mentioned was the meteorologist on Channel 4 News), and we spent the next hour meeting up with the rest of the team, getting our Tri Tats put on (temporary tattoos of your bib number and your age) (which were really awesome looking, by the way), and getting our transition areas set up how we wanted. Since this was my first tri, I didn’t know all of the rules, like when you are allowed to go into the transition area and when you aren’t, and it took me a few minutes to figure everything out and get my gear in order. Here’s the checklist:

Body Glide, swim cap, goggles, wetsuit, sandals, towels, tri-shorts, bike, CO2 accessories, spare tube, cycling gloves, tri suit, helmet, socks, sunglasses, ibuprofen, energy gels, money, race number and fuel belt, sun block, transition bags, Garmin, visor, and chap stick.

Going through everything over and over in my head, I realized I was just going to have to go for it, and I took off my jacket (it was really chilly without a jacket before the sun came up) and sandals, and grabbed my wetsuit, cap and goggles, and just left.

We made our way over to the swim start area, and all the swimmers were getting their wetsuits zipped up and caps on. I always try to avoid putting my cap on until as late as possible, because I look like a mole, or a pencil head, or something weird because of how big my head is and how bald I look with the cap on. But I went for it. Who cares, when you’re about to look death in the face and swim in a cold, muddy lake with 2,000 other people that also look funny in their caps? ;) They had told us that there would be some mud we would have to run through on the way out of the water, but what they meant was that the entrance and exit area of the lake was about knee-deep sinking red mud, and you would have to have incredible balance to get through it without falling over into the muddy water.

So the gunshots start firing and the waves of triathletes are beginning to start in the water. The buoys were so far out there, and you had to go counterclockwise in a triangle shape outside of the orange buoys. The orange guide buoys were bigger than the white ones we were aiming for, so it was so hard (especially with incredibly foggy goggles) to sight the white ones with all the blockage. So I mostly just sighted off the only thing I could see, which was the other pink-capped swimmers around me, until I was close enough to see the buoys. I was super nervous at first, since the water was cold and it was hard to see, but I just told myself, You can do this, You can do this. And after several minutes of getting warmer and realizing I was approaching the first bouy and was 1/3 of the way done, I relaxed and it just began to feel natural. The wetsuit really does wonders for buoyancy and warmth! Man, I felt like I was on a boat and my arms were the paddles… like if I got tired I could just stop paddling and just kind of float there for a second, then keep going. Amazing!

During one portion of the swim, I began to notice that the caps around me were no longer pink, but they were orange. Those were the people who started in the fifth wave, or the “beginners wave.” Shoot. I’m a beginner too, and all these people are already passing me when they started like 3 minutes behind me! Then I started to see some yellow caps, and those guys started a couple of waves ahead of me, so I felt better. I began to realize that everyone is racing their own race, and I need to quit comparing myself to the people around me. One swimmer was a man probably in his 30s and he was being pulled out by a kayak… I was swimming as hard as I could on the last leg of the triangle and suddenly realized I was headed straight for a kayak. I stopped and re-routed myself temporarily, the guy apologized for being in my way and told me I was doing awesome, so I got a second wind and pushed through til the end.

I came out of the swim thinking, wow, that went by a lot faster than I had thought, and I don’t even feel real winded! I tramped through the mud again, knowing that I would be even more disoriented after swimming that far and didn’t want to fall on my way out. There were guys standing in the mud helping people out of the water, then people cheering along the sides of the carpet all the way from the water’s edge to the transition area, then people just outside the transition area surrounding several mats, waiting for athletes to let them strip their wetsuits off for them. They call these people “strippers,” and they had instructed us before the race to just yell “STRIPPERRR!” when you come out of the water and they would just strip you right there. Funny, because before I heard this, I didn’t even know that you were supposed to be clothed underneath your wetsuit, and I was thinking this situation would be super awkward. But in fact it wasn’t, and was extremely helpful since there’s no need to waste energy pulling off that wetsuit when you need to save all you can! And I was fully clothed in my tri suit underneath and ready to go to transition 1 (T1)!

I gathered everything I needed for the bike, ran to the bike mount line, and took off. Man, did I feel good! I was a bit wet, of course, but surprisingly didn’t feel cold. Maybe it was just the adrenaline. But it felt like there was a tailwind behind me. All the way through the entire bike course. Really, all I can say about the bike is that I just felt so good for about the first 48 or 50 miles. It was the best time for just praying and thanking God that he put a tailwind behind me the entire way. I know that doesn’t seem possible, but I was just flying to the north and the west, then when I turned around and headed back east, I was expecting a headwind. But there was none! I was just flying that direction again, the weather was perfect, and I couldn’t stop smiling. The bike part is when the athletes really started talking to each other and encouraging each other. So many people would say “Great job,” or “Looking good!” usually as they passed me, but I passed a few myself, and would try to say the same thing.

My favorite part of the bike course was the last few miles, even though those were the hardest. My roomie, Stephanie, was volunteering there and was directing traffic in and out of Sonic on Council Rd. I knew when I was approaching her Sonic that I would get a good pick-me-up from seeing her smiling face (and her tall, skinny, jumping, enthusiastic self)! So that was awesome, then a mile or so down the road, I saw my dad, directing traffic at a neighborhood entrance, and then my mom at the second entrance. They both cheered me on and high-fived me on the way by, and that was all I needed to get through to the end of the bike. A huge thanks also to Jan and Will for directing traffic at Macarthur and Britton, and so sad I didn’t get to see them during my ride!

One of the best parts was the camaraderie associated with Team in Training participants. Every time I saw a purple jersey/tri suit, I would hear “Go team!” and would say “Go team!” in response. Coolest thing ever. Even the people there from Team in Training in the Texas chapter would say it. We all encouraged each other!

As I crossed the bike dismount line to enter transition 2, I hopped off the bike and my legs felt incredibly stiff. Like so stiff I could barely move them to walk my bike across the timing pad. The guy directing people had said “Don’t forget to dismount here!” and I had heard him, being extra cautious to dismount plenty early to avoid penalties, and I’m pretty sure I heard a good chuckle from him as I got off early and waddled through the lane. I bent over and stretched my legs out as I took off my bike shoes and helmet and threw on my running shoes, race belt and visor. First time to wear a visor since I was a kid and we had those ones with the plastic bill and stretchy spiral cords around the back. It was great to have the sun off my face - or at least the top half of my face.

The run was pretty brutal after having pushed so hard the last part of the bike, and my legs really just didn’t want to move at all. I kept telling myself they will stretch out and feel better, then the run will feel natural just like always. Didn’t happen. But it was so nice knowing all that I had left to do was run, because I knew I could finish it no matter what, even if I had to walk. I started to have these sharp cramps in my lower intestines, and I got a little fear that it was going to be bad. There were definitely a few moments where I was scouting out the nearest porta-potty and actually had to stop running and focus on holding it together. But the urge would go away and I just kept going, thank God.

So I pushed and pushed, bonded with a few fellow runners along the way, encouraged each other, and on the last half of the second loop of the run course, I came up beside another Team in Training runner. I jogged slightly past him and another guy and said Hi and Go Team, then I noticed he came running behind me and caught up. I hadn’t officially met this guy, but recognized him, and I introduced myself as Heather. He was Carl, and I asked him to explain the back of his shirt - it said Leslie You are My Hero (maybe that wasn’t the exact name, I can’t remember). He said it was his sister and she was diagnosed with Leukemia and given only a few months to live at the age of 3. She is now 30 years old and he was running in her honor. Instantly, I liked this guy. Then I had a weak moment and told him I needed to walk for a minute so I’d see him at the end. He stopped jogging and walked with me, saying, “No, I’ll wait. We can finish together.” Wow. It blew my mind. We were so close to the end and were both feeling weak, but he was willing to sacrifice his burst of energy to stick with me. After a big of haggling and my apologizing, saying “No, you don’t have to wait for me!” we both ended up walking and talking some more. We stuck together during those last 3 miles - the hardest of them all - and when one of us would get tired, we would just push the other to keep going. We finished strong, side-by-side, and I felt proud to be part of that team.

The clock said 6:50 - what? Under 7 hours? That can’t be possible! I had no idea what time it was or how long I had been out there, but that blew me away. I was aiming for 7 hours or 7:30… at least under 8 hours, but under 7?

Afterward, I made my way through the finish line tent, where more volunteers were handing out finisher shirts, medals, and all kinds of snacks (none of which sounded good whatsoever). I met up with the those of the training team who had already finished (some like 45 minutes ahead of me - Go Taylor!) and was greeted by my friend Jenny (who surprised me by showing up.. how awesome!) and my mom. Mom had left her volunteer traffic-directing station at the bike course and come to see me finish. Apparently I finished a while before she and Dad expected me to, because she missed my finish by just about 10 minutes. It was so great to see my loved ones and just such a relieving feeling to be finished!

I then got a massage from a very kind and friendly volunteer named Michelle at the massage tent. She told me about her mother’s dying the past year from leukemia and how she has raised 4 kids while her husband was in the military, 2 of which he was not able to be at their birth. I was her last massage of the day, so I think she took her time with me and gave us plenty of talking time :) I was glad to draw out the massage part.. it was my first time to have a post-race massage, even though they’re almost always offered after endurance events, and I would highly recommend it!

The rest of the afternoon was filled with inspiration and reflection, a very satisfying shower, lots of responses to texts and phone calls, and a very early night to bed.

Thank you all so much, again… I cannot say it enough… for all your support and love throughout the wedding this summer, training and fundraising, and the event itself - I could not be more proud to be part of such a supportive community!

something new

Photo

REDMAN Recap - 1.2, 56, 13.1

Photo

Photo Set

Photo

Photo

Photo

How hard is it to swim 1.2 miles?

Photo

Photo