Strong, Light and Beautiful - with one leg

I took this picture of Sarah Reinertsen running by me, just after my husband ran by - both starting the final portion of their Olympic distance tri's. It not only was super inspiring to see her smile, so beautiful, her power and strength, and how light hearted and energetic she was - the definition of SLaB - it threw me back to the day before - during my Sprint distance triathlon attempt. 

Yes I did not train enough... but I wanted to accomplish something. The swim as you know I didn't like for the crowds. I LOVED the bike portion, as I know bikes, ride them, and just plain always feel happy riding a bike. The run was something else. "Heavy legs"... I thought... then "no... I have to say my mantra".  Another 40+ yr. old lady and I struggled up the short steep hills, and I tried to motivate us both into thinking how light, fast, and strong we were. We got quiet... and turned a corner to face another steep short hill... and both of us involuntarily gasped a sigh of struggle.

Not a second or two later, a CAF (Challenged Athlete Foundation) runner with ONE LEG, like Sarah here in this picture... was returning from the turn-around point on the run. Ahead of us, strong, smiling and amazing. 

That put it in perspective for us two moaning ladies who felt like our 2 legs were too heavy for us.  We could have just one... and would we be complaining so?

I'm happy to say both my legs are sore, and I'm still feeling the affects of accomplishing an event, be it shorter than other challenges, but long enough to scare me, excite me, and make me feel proud I tried it. Thanks Sarah and your colleagues - for inspiring us so much!

www.challengedathletes.org

Anxiety ends with successful Wildflower "fun"

Bev and Terry pre-ride some of the "mtn. bike course" with our event schwag bags on our backs.
Bev starts bike portion of tri - after the brutal nasty mosh pit of a swim. By the way, took me about 2 minutes more to swim the swim, as it did to transition to the bike from the swim. Guess I predicted or attracted that to myself, by the previous blog regarding the darn wetsuit!

Ride starts by going under the finish line, so ignore the time - just notice I'm not smiling yet. It took about 20 minutes into the 9.7 mile ride for me to start singing to fellow riders. I loved this portion of the tri. Needed real single track or some technical though. 

Afterwards at expo area relaxing to a band, trying to get rid of head-ache and rehydrate. This spectator took over my helmet area - and had the right idea!

Karen who kicked butt w/ a 1 hrs 16 min time, top 8 for our 40+ women's cat. Then me with 1 hour 28 minutes of stress, joy, exhaustion then celebration. Terry on right - waiting for his race the next day - he did the Olympic distance - and did fantastic - cutting a couple minutes off his last time in 2001 - at 2 hrs 46 min. 

Did it, glad I accomplished it, very cool event, not sure I'll do it again. ;-)

girl found unconscious at swim-bike transition....

We leave tomorrow, my race is day after tomorrow. 

Just for fun.... I decided to try on the borrowed wetsuit... and simulate a transition. Had my husband point the garden hose at me to get the suit wet - he enjoyed that a bit much... then I tried to take it off. I got stuck numerous times. 

Exhausted, nearly giving up - but wanting out of the suit now making me sweat... I use a good 10 minutes to get it off. Total transition... 15 minutes. Wow... I'm so not breaking any records other than worst transitioner... 

Wildflower... here I come!