Reasons behind doing my first Sprint Triathlon

OK so this was supposed to be a blog but for the life of me I can't figure out how to post it. Can we all say NOOB??

Howdy This is my foray into the blogging world so please be kind as I am NOT a writer, or a grammatical expert but I am something of a spelling Nazi. So IF you do find a misspelled word, feel free to point those out but other errors, drop those in the circular paper file.

I completed my first Sprint Triathlon this past Sunday, April 14, 2013 and what an incredible I had and still smile just thinking of what I accomplished. I can regurgitate the past year of my fitness journey but I won't bore you and just tell you if you really want to read it, go read my profile It's open for the general public and nosy stalkers who don't want to add people.

Well I guess I am hoping people will be reading this and I hope someone is otherwise this is just a letter to me and I am ok with that. Anyway, I digress, as I tend to forget where I am heading when I start talking and what is writing just another form of talking on paper, or in this case the virtual cyber world.

This race I did is called the Angel's Race because a family lost their angel 12 years ago in a school bus accident. She was named Brittany and Brittany was only 13 years old when she became one of God's angels. Her family got together with others, formed a charitable foundation, www.angelsrace.com, and from the ashes of their grief raised this beautiful thing.

The first year of the Tri most participants wrote Brittany on their arms as their 'angel' they were running for in the race. In every year thereafter, every participant would put their own angel on their arm. It might have been a family member, husband, brother, sister, mother, father, child. Just someone they were grieving for and competing in memory of this person.
I am blessed to have both my parents as angels but the person I raced for this year was my BFF"s husband, Donny. Donny died tragically 3 years ago from in a construction accident at the very young age of 45. His wife Janice had been a stay at home mom for 25 years and hadn't worked a day since she was a kid. Due to legal reasons I don't know nor can explain, she was forced to go to work right away. She went from a cashier to a department head in a year for Hobby Lobby. She kept herself together, her kids together, and all her family and Donny's too. She started biking to keep sane, then starting running. She lost over 65 pounds without really trying but she never lost sight of her kids, or her family. She is my fitspiration, my inspiration, my heart, my person I strive to be most like if I can ever be half as good as her.

Ok that explains the reason of which I raced for but let’s tell ya why I crazily decided to do a Triathlon at 50 years old. My daughter Meaghan was close with Brittany growing up and they did gymnastics together. Brittany's Mom Beth was the first friend I met in Lynchburg, VA when I first moved here 20 years ago. Her husband coached Meaghan in soccer. Beth took Brittany and Meaghan back and forth to the gym after I had my son 18 years ago. Beth was the friend who brought cooked food to my house daily for a week after I came home with a newborn from a c-section. Beth comforted ME when her daughter died. I wept in HER arms at her own daughter's funeral. Quite an extraordinary woman and a family strong in their faith.

They formed the Angel's to honor Brittany's memory and I vowed to 'someday' do this triathlon. That was 12 years ago. Sunday was the 11th Angel's Race and I did it. I did a 5k 3/9/13 after completing the C26K program, did it in 34:50, then decided crazily that because I could do a 5k I should then do a Sprint Triathlon. A sprint triathlon is 300m swim, 25k bike, and then a 5k. I had a whopping month to train for this but come hell or high water I was going to do it. Cuz let's face it; I could be a wee bit stubborn.

I swam for the first time in ten years 2 weeks before the race, I biked outside on a 'real' bike a week before the race, and maybe ran outside a handful of times but I had been working out like a fiend at the gym cross training for 3 months so I think I was decently prepared but certainly not triathlon trained. I acquired Tri friends on here, purchased triathlon books, picked triathlete's brains, gleaned forums, posted forum threads on the topic, and ready every internet article I could find, to get ready both physically and mentally.

I ran into a friend who promised to lend me his new hybrid bike for the race but when it came time to drop it off, it was a 30 year old kid’s mountain bike that didn't work very well. I took it to the local bike shop and the owner literally bent over laughing looking at the bike. At this point it was too late to work on the bikes I had in my shed, so he promised me a loaner bike from his shop for race day for $30. I promise anyone reading that yes, there will be more triathlons. I was bit by the tri bug. My first purchase will be a good used, tri bike as soon as possible.

I did a Y Tri indoor challenge at my local Y two weeks prior to the race and met up with my young chippy. Kim is in the same boat as me: 20/30 pounds overweight and looking to get fit. She thought doing the triathlon and training for it would get us there. We paired up for training and did two a day workouts in the gym: 5:30 am/5:30 pm. I swear some days she tried to kill me as she is almost half my age. I am 50, she is 30, but I hung and had a good time. Bonus, I found a training partner and made a new friend.

Fast forward to race day and I will share with you one of the best days of my life. IF you are still reading this, thank you for hanging on so long with my long winded story. I got up at 4:30 am to be at the race at 6 am. Kim and I rode together, dropped off the bikes at the transition area, went back to park the car, then got back to the transition area to set up our stuff
Any triathlete will tell you setting up your spot is key and crucial to transition timing. You come straight from swimming and in bare feet. Some change clothes, some need bike shorts, bike shorts, etc. You have to have your helmet on and clipped before leaving the area. Once you have all your gear, shoes, and clothing on, you walk/run your bike to the spot where you can start riding. I did pretty well in the first transition, called T1, and set off for my 25k, 15.5 mile bike ride, along the beautiful James River along what they call rolling hills.

Rolling hills my *kitten*. LOL some of those hills I thought I was climbing Mount Everest. However, when I finally made it to River Road I had the chain come off the bike. No big deal right, I hop off and fix it. Maybe takes me 5 minutes. Probably only 1-2 minutes really but lost a few getting off the road and trying not to get run over by cars, as they didn't close the road, or get in the way of other racers. I didn't want to slow anyone else down. So getting the bike off the road, watching behind me etc took a few minutes.

Now I am a little bit covered in grease but it is a beautiful day maybe 70 degrees and I am grateful there is no rain, not cold, and the views are beautiful. I maybe go another mile and the chain comes off, AGAIN. I get a little bit more greasy, takes another 5 minutes, but I prevail and on we go.

Sadly, the bike does it a third time and this time the chain is seriously wedged in there. It took all the strength I had to pull it out and I think on this breakdown I have lost at least 10 minutes. Finally, another bike stops to ask if I need help but I had just gotten the chain back on when he stopped. I was thankful he stopped and told him so.

This all happened within the first 3 miles of my ride, maybe 3 1/2. I still had 4 miles to go mostly uphill. I was dirty, sweaty, a wee bit frustrated at all the time I lost, and a part of me wanted to quit a couple of times, but I kept on saying, "nope that isn't what you are here for.' Not to win, but to finish. And I was going to finish.

Now when you sign up for a triathlon, or at least thin one, not sure how others go, but I had to give them a time for my 300 meter and that's how they place you in order to start the race. There was a cap of 400 racers and I was number 339. SO only 41 racers were coming after me on the bike and several had already passed me due to the chain issues. I passed a few bikers on the course as once I had no more problems I was doing pretty well riding along, and coming back down the course was a breeze. We rode up 6 or so miles on the road, and turned around came back then did 2 or so miles each way out of downtown. When I finally finished there might have been 4 or 5 people left to finish the bike part.

I came back to transition, thought about putting my running shoes on, but due to time, I foolishly opted not to and grabbed a drink, popped some gu stuff, and away I went. Coming out of T2, I saw my ex husband, my daughter, and my son. What a smiling group to see and exactly what I needed to get moving My son ran with me for a minute or two and that made me smile. I saw so many people heading back in and I got so many good jobs, keep it up, you are almost there and at every corner there were volunteers cheering us on. I don't have much experience but let me tell, the volunteers and organization of this race was phenomenal.

Well there were 4 of us kind of together. Two girls maybe 21, and a 28 year old. Did I mention I was 50?? LOL We were all jogging, taking breaks on the hills *Lynchburg is known as the hill city*, then running again. Turns out we were the last 4 in the race; I didn't know this till later. Well I was at the turn around on the trail when a man named Mick came up to me, asked my name, told me he was the race coordinator and was going to run with me till the end of the race.

I asked him if I was the last one to finish and he said yes. At this point, I didn't care, I was going to finish, but I didn’t know if I was going to be with the slowest time as we all had different start times. We started talking, he asked me why I doing the Angel's Race, who I was running, and did I know the Groovers,, Beth and Tim. He shared with me how he knew them and how he came to be involved in the race.

If anyone knows me, I am a born flirt, a natural talker, not very shy, and I will talk to ANYONE. He and I talked while we ran. It was a slow run but I was running, at least at that point. I shared with him my history with the Groovers, my daughter’s relationship with Brittany, how I met Beth and how she was my first friend in town when I first settled here from NY. How I vowed to someday to do the race and how that day was someday. I told him I had lost 100 pounds and next year when I did I was going to be fitter, and faster, and my son was going to do it with me. William didn’t know it yet but I figured I would draft his football playing butt to do this with me.

We kept right on going till we came to the 8th street hill. That hill is brutal. I can't tell you how steep it is and how tired I was at this point but I tried to run it. I looked up at the hill and saw my son coming down. He was going to finish the race with me. Oh yeah I am crying just thinking about that kid doing that for me. By this time, I had no less than 2 dozen volunteers going with me up the hill, cheering me on, encouraging me to the less than 1/2 mile finish line. I introduced my son to Mick and jokingly told William he was going to do this with me next year.

Without missing a beat, that kid said, "You bet Mom. If you can do it, I can too." I got up the hill and if you watch this video I am hoping to post you can say I am struggling to walk the last 1/4 mile to the finish line. I have quite a cheering section and I wanted to finish strong. I got my wind back from the hill and sprinted to the finish line. Getting high fives, atta girls, and the woman who met me at the finish line was Beth Groover telling me how proud she was of me. I saw my daughter there cheering for me and so many strangers so happy for me. What a feeling, I can't explain it.

Mick, the race coordinator, told me not to go anywhere as they were going to finish with the awards ceremony. I was then told I was not only covered in grease on my hands, arms, fingers, wrists, etc I was told I had it on my face. Before I could even find a bathroom I heard my name being called by Mick to come up to the front.
In front of a crowd of maybe 400 athletes, 100 volunteers, and 100 spectators Mick shared my story: the chain problems, the weight loss, my connections to Brittany and the Groovers, my friend’s story with losing her husband and my angel, and the fact that I was drafting my son into next year’s race. He was crying when he shared my story (I didn't tell him any of this thinking it would be public knowledge, as again, I am not shy and talk to anyone) but he then told me my son and I had two free passes for next year for my determination and not giving up when many others would he said.

That's my story. It was truly such a remarkable day for me, having so much support from the community, from my family, and achieving something on my bucket list. Thank you for reading

YouTube link of my video finish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKxpmxcGgeo
This might work too
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