So it might as well be established that I am a sporadic
blogger at best. I will own it. I love my busy, busy, life and when I get to
a point that I can blog regularly I probably won’t have anything interesting to
blog about anyway. At this point I have five
kids, two jobs and I’m six days out from competing in Ironman Coeur
D’Alene. I wanted to do this post
because I was chatting with one of the mentors in the beginner- tri group I am
coaching about how we all start somewhere and that my journey started 50 pounds
heavier, and much, much slower. I joked
that there were pictures on Facebook if she really wanted to see. She said she did because it is always
inspiring to see that most people don’t start as Ironman. So here is a recap of my triathlon journey. J
My first triathlon ever was a sprint at Beaver Lake in Issaquah
WA in 1997. I was 104th out
of 112 women. I was ecstatic to have
done one and finished strong and happy.
I had (modestly) nursed my 4 month old in a one piece swim suit at the
start and was almost as proud of that feat as I was the tri. My time was 2:06:22
and I was last in my age group of 20-24.
A couple of weeks later I went back to school full time. I signed up for swimming as my PE
credit. I did the Medical Lake Sprint tri
in 2008 and was faster on the swim and overall.
With a much smaller field I finished third in my age group (there were
probably 4 people in it). I was one of
the first people out of the water and in the top 10 women overall off the
bike. Then I did my usual (at that point) shuffle and watched all the
other women pass me. I was pretty hooked
on tris at that point and wanted to continue but life sort of got in the way.
Fast forward 10 years and 3 more kids (that makes 5
total). I had finished school and had
decided to be a stay-home mom for a bit.
Being a mommy to a lot of little kids makes for not a lot of working out
time. A triple jogging stroller was way
outside my price range and I honestly couldn’t muster the motivation
anyway. I was walking pretty regularly
while the older kids were at school but I wasn’t seeing any weight loss. I got my thyroid checked and sure enough that
was the issue. Thyroid medication wasn’t
an overnight fix but it let my come out of my mental fog and say “hey I want to
do something about the way I look and feel.”
My sister Nyla lives in Canada about 4 hours away and
together we hatched a plan to do some races together and then check in with
each other by phone and help each other stay motivated. The first one we chose was the Kal Rats
Triathlon in Vernon B.C. I still didn’t follow a training plan, just kind of
started swimming, biking, and running randomly and then calling my sister on
the phone and talking about it.
Being a family of 7 on one income meant that I would be
riding my husband’s bike (size 56, yup I’m 5’4”) and wearing a water skiing
wetsuit (I didn’t know any better). I
loved and still love biking and became addicted to spin classes at that point
(the bikes fit better than the one I was riding outside). J
The day of the race came and I decided that my wetsuit was
too small ( I had gained 50 pounds between my 5th baby and the
thyroid issues). So I would wear my
husband’s. He is 6’ tall with broad
shoulders. I got out there in the water
(which had A LOT of milfoil) and realized that I had miscalculated some things:
1. Men’s XL was not my size. I was
dragging a man sized bucket through the swim.
2. I should have trained in open water.
3. I should have checked the distance of the swim more
carefully and remembered that there is a pretty big difference between yards
and meters. And it was 750 meters.
When I finally got out of the water with the guy in his
seventies I rushed to my bike and rode it like I stole it. It was hilly to say the least. I passed a few people and started my
run. It was hillier. Like up one side of the steepest hill you can
think of then down the other side and turn around and climb it again
hilly. I did not finish last but I was
not excited about my performance. My
sister kicked (my) butt.
I decided my next race should be a half marathon. Which Nyla and I did together in the fall of
2007 (Spokane, in 2:30 ish if you are
wondering ).
Then a cool thing happened. Nyla and I signed up for Kal
Rats and our first Olympic distance (Titanium Man) in 2008 and I met Sarah
Foster. She introduced me to training
plans. Here were all these workouts laid
out on a schedule and all I had to do was follow it. And they had instructions for transitions,
nutrition, biking up hills, running at a steady pace, open water swimming and
more. I signed up for the tri Sarah was
doing at the end of summer too. She also
dragged me out to Couer D’Alene to watch Ironman CDA that year. I was so inspired I was ready to think about,
maybe, someday, sort of consider, doing it.
Maybe.
My tri experiences got better from there. I had started to eat a mostly raw vegan diet
at that point and not having as much dairy and gluten did great things for
me. I didn’t stick with totally raw but
wish that I could. I have completely
eliminated dairy and gluten from my diet and feel tons better.
That next stint at Kal Rats was a lot better. I got a 10 min PR and had a much more
positive feeling about the race. My race
with Sarah was great too. I was a runner
again and lighter. Still not a great
swimmer but I did just fine.
Titanium man was also fun but I was hoping for an easier
time swimming. It still seemed really
long even with the downriver swim. My
overall time was 02:47:01. Nyla beat me by over 10 min. But I had finished it. That was a quarter of an Ironman! Almost. J
So I signed up
for my first and then second marathons.
6 weeks apart (don’t do that).
In the meantime
hubby had signed up for and completed his first Ironman, the Grand
Columbian. And for CDA but he didn’t
tell me. He’s weird that way. So when He did Ironman CDA In 2009 (He
finally told me what he was up to so I could come watch) I decided I was
signing up. I had signed up for Troika
Half Iron and was training for that and best of all I had gotten a bike.
Let me introduce
you to Watson (Watts for short-get it?).
Oh yes I AM that triathlete. I
ride a Cervelo P1 tri bike. It has zero
carbon on it anywhere. Ultegra
components and a Terry saddle. Speed play
pedals (regular not lite action). When I
race I usually borrow carbon wheels from my generous tri friends, which makes
the aluminum frame a little nicer to ride for long distances. I love my bike and while I will upgrade
someday, it works just fine.
I also got a
wetsuit. I now race in a women’s Zoot
Zenith. It makes me look like Bat Girl
but it’s a little too big now that I’ve lost weight. This is not too much of a problem because it
will never be as bad as that first Kal Rats (what doesn’t drown us makes us
stronger, right?).
I’ve continued
to get faster since. My first Troika was right around 6 and a half hours. In 2010 I joined Team Blaze and was blessed to have Scott and Tristin Roy give me advice and wisdom for my first Ironman. I raced Ironman CDA and finished in 12 hours and 55 minutes . I had raced Boise 70.3 in 6:02ish and Onion-man
Olympic in 2:51:39 as precursor races and I felt strong and was really happy
with my times and my experiences. I especially appreciated the camaraderie of Team Blaze and the boost of the extra cheer and encouragement that wearing flames seems to bring.
The next year I
signed up for Troika again because I really wanted to go sub six at that
distance. Thanks to a migrating swim
buoy and 4 extra miles on the bike course I did 6:02:24. I cried but then realized that If you took
the overall winner out, I had won my age group.
I also qualified for Nationals. I
had done Valley Girl (1:12 and third in AG) and went on to do Priest Lake tri (2:45:06
and 2nd AG) and titanium man (2:34:53 1st in my AG) that
year too.
2012 was all
about the sub six half. I picked Chelan-man
and it was the only one that I did last year. I think. Hubby will tell you that
I forget stuff. I trained hard and was
really excited because my running had improved a lot. I knew that I could do a 1:47 stand-alone half
marathon (Windermere). It was the first
and only time so far that I have ever ridden a disc wheel and it must have
worked because my time was 5:49:35 and I was the 5th woman overall
and 1st in my AG. Thank you Charlie for
lending me your wheels. Okay I just
remembered the other “half” that I did last year. Boise. Ugh. I blocked it from my memory. Just kidding you can look up all kinds of
things about Boise 2012 but I’m not going into it.
So that brings
us to this year: Hits Half Ironman (5:57:56 and 2nd AG) and Onion-man
(2:39:01 and 5th AG but 10th overall). I’ve run a 3:37:44 marathon (my 13th,
at Leavenworth in October) and a 1:43:56 half (Windermere). I rode two loops of the ironman course
without crying (113.4 miles, not sure how that number came out). I think I’m ready. If I don’t break my PR it won’t be the end of
the world, it’s a different course for both bike and run, but I really hope to.
I've loved my triathlon journey. There have been ups and downs of course. When Scott Roy passed away in April of 2012 was a definite low. I will borrow his saying in order to cement it a little more firmly into my mind for Sunday. Enjoy the Journey friends.
