Be Inspiring: IMKY Part 1

Back in July of 2012 when I was training for Ironman Louisville, I took a trip down to Louisville to ride the Ironman bike course with my training buddy Tim. This local guy named Bob set up these weekend rides on the actual course all summer long and would recruit his friends and others he knew to set up aid stations along the way! This was definitely worth the drive down, just to be able to ride the course and be a bit more prepared on the day of the actual race. On that day we met up with other riders who were training for IMKY, one of which was Julie Farman. Julie and I hit it off right away….she has an amazing personality, a warm smile and she’s fierce…..this girl had done IMKY 5 times…...FIVE.TIMES. Crazy.  She was one of the swimmers who bumped into the athlete who had a heart attack and sadly died during IMKY in 2011. Julie and others formed a call around this man to protect him until he was able to be removed from the water and the race could continue.

July 2012: Tim and I take on the IMKY bike course

Since that time we’ve stayed in touch. I love the people that IM has brought into my life. Julie and I have been meaning to meet up and finally the time had come! I was volunteering as a finish line catcher for Ironman Louisville the next day and so I drove down on Saturday to spend the night with Julie, catch up with her and be ready to go on Sunday afternoon. I was super excited to see her again!

Julie and her pup Zeus

We share a love of good wine :)

Zeus can keep up with Julie and run with her for 20 miles! 

Julie’s story is pretty remarkable. She was born in South Africa and grew up in France until age 14 when her family moved to Louisville. Julie became a French teacher and coaches cross country and track teams. Like me, she was a runner before getting into triathlons. She met her husband Michael and he signed her up for her first sprint triathlon. They were active and shared a love of travel.

Julie got a call one day at work from Michael’s brother who was at the hospital. She was told to come quickly and by the time she reached the hospital, Michael had died of a heart attack. It was so completely out of no where and sudden. He was a healthy guy and there were no symptoms of concern in the days leading up to his death. Suddenly Julie was widowed and only in her 30’s. Tragic. Julie recalls the day like it was yesterday.

Time passed but Julie never really processed everything that she had just went through. She went back to work and pushed ahead. And suddenly one day she broke and the floodgates opened. The shock wore off. Julie grieved and she grieved hard. The summer I met her was the first year she had started to feel as though the pieces were coming back together and she was moving forward.

Triathlon is a big deal for all of us who challenge ourselves to go the distance. We do it for a lot of reasons, some of which are deeply personal.  

Julie is one of those women who inspire me to greatness. She’s been through more pain and sorrow than I can even imagine. She’s traveled the world, embraces life and continually challenges herself. She opens her heart and her home to a this random gal and I am beyond grateful for that hot, sticky, hilly ride back in July of 2012 when this amazing lady came into my life.

Be Inspiring. Be Brave.

Be a Mingoman

Another nice thing about having a later “A” race this season (Ironman Arizona, November 16, 2014, 85 days….!!!), is that I’ve had the chance to participate in a lot of various hometown Olympic triathlons this summer. My last Olympic triathlon this year was the inaugural Mingoman Triathlon, a point-to-point race…..a .9 mile swim in Delaware Lake at Delaware State Park, then a 25 mile bike from the state park to downtown Delaware, then a 6.2 mile run around downtown Delaware. I’m not a super big fan of point to point races, it’s kind of challenging to have 2 different transition areas to set up, usually at the crack of dawn. But the Ross Tri-Fit Challenge was a point to point race and we were able to drop our bikes the night before. Not so with Mingoman which equated to a VERY early wake up on race morning!

Race morning I woke up at 3:45am and stumbled around pulling myself together. I need more time than usual “waking up” in the morning before races so the extra time helps. I got myself together and having packed up stuff the night before, I was pretty much ready to go. Left the house at 4:30am and made my way to transition #1, where I’d drop my bike and bike gear. I’ve never been to Delaware State Park and even if I had, it was so dark I had no clue where the lake was….so following the other cars arriving as early as me helped and I finally found T1. After finding my spot and arguing with the newbies around me about which way my bike was really supposed to face, I racked my bike and went back to my car to drive to downtown Delaware to set up T2. It was a straight shot, about 5 miles from the park and I found it easily. Parked and set up my T2 gear then parked my car and found the shuttle to get back up to the start of the race. The shuttle (school bus) finally got us back up to the start of the race and the sun started to peek out of the clouds.

I found some other Just Tri teammates who were racing and did my usual pre-race bathroom stop and pulled on the wetsuit. Being able to do more races this summer has made me more confident of my transition setups….I”m not spending tons of time agonizing over what I’ve got out and set up…..I know what I need and forget the rest of the fluff. The lake was pretty calm and the swim was a 2 loop rectangle course. My wave, Olympic women and relays were first. The amazing Tracy Hendershot (aka my swim coach) was racing so my #1 goal became: keep Tracy in your eyesight…...don’t let her get too far away, then you’ll know you’re doing well. This was tough….she’s one fast lady in the water, but I was able to keep an eye on her up until the end. Tracy got out of the water about 4 minutes before me because stupid me decided I’d try something new on race day…...BIG MISTAKE. I tried to take my wetsuit off in the water to save time in transition, but all I ended up doing was struggling in the water, going under a few times and embarrassing myself in front of the sprint wave that was trying to get into the water. Sigh. Live and learn. Amazingly enough I found out later that I got a PR in the swim….my fastest swim of all my Olympic races this summer: a SUB 30 min swim! Yay!

Another piece of good news…..my T1 time was the fastest I’ve had this summer too! Woot! I got my swim gear together and put it in my marked bag to meet me down at the finish and took off on my bike. After a few miles in the park we were out on the side berm of highway 23 north, a road I’ve driven MANY times to go back to Michigan. Was very strange to be riding right next to that traffic, but after we made the turn east the traffic cleared a bit. The bike was a big square and for some reason I never really found my “groove.” There was some headwinds as I turned south to get back down to Delaware and my end finish time on the bike wasn’t a PR, but it wasn’t awful. I’ve come to find out my fastest bike split back in June at Ross Tri Fit was mostly due to the fact that the course was downhill. Too bad they all can’t be like that!

After making my way into T2, I was greeted by some Just Tri teammates cheering me on and other familiar tri-faces! Katy Perry’s “Roar” was booming on the speakers and I was super pumped...the announcer noticed my Just Tri jersey and called me out by name…..a buddy of mine told him I was doing Ironman Arizona and he gave me another shout out. Surprisingly enough, my T2 time was the fastest I’ve ever had too! I was out and on the run!

Off to the run!

The run course was a 2 loop, 3.1 mile run and the first portion of the run was gradually uphill. I kept along at a good clip and thankfully there were about 3 water stops on the loop which meant good hydration for each loop. The sun had come out strong by this point and it was getting warm. After making it to the turnaround I was greeted by cheering teammates again and made the turn for the second loop. Tracy was ahead of me by a little bit and I never really caught back up to her. The good news about the uphill portion of the run course is that we got to run back down it on each loop. That second descent meant I was nearing the finish line and I couldn’t wait! I finished in about 2:42, which wasn’t a PR for me, but I was OK with that…..the smaller portions of the race including the swim AND run AND both T1/T2 were all PR times for me and that’s a win in my book.

Heading towards the finish!

Running it in!

I made my way through the crowd, got my medal and met up with teammates and other tri peeps, had some good food and drinks, cleared out my transition gear and hung out a bit with everyone...the weather had turned out to be perfect! When the results were posted, I was elated to see I had placed 2nd Overall Female in the Olympic Tri division! And of all the gals who beat me, I'm glad it was the amazing Tracy, by about 4 minutes!

Just Tri peeps!

Mingoman was a great race and despite the point to point obstacles, I had a good race. These smaller Olympic races over the summer have been challenging at times though...I”m learning that as someone who trains for longer distances (half-irons and Ironmans) it’s harder to do the small races which require a lot more speed. It’s like a perpetual marathoner racing a 5k. You can do it, but it’s different. Overall, I’ve love the chances to race more this summer….it’s given me confidence in the sport and a chance to really practice my transitions. I’m grateful and frankly kind of shocked with the results I’ve had.

Next up is the Rev 3 Cedar Point race….a half-iron distance race that promises strong waves in Lake Eric on the swim and noticeable winds on the 56 mile bike. The run course takes you out and around downtown before a finish right by the coasters of Cedar Point. I did this race last year and remember it well. It’s a good tune up race and will be my last before the big dog….IMAZ.

Killer is getting a lot of use this summer….just as it should be. And she’ll be ready. Hopefully I will be as well.

Be a Mingoman. Be Brave.

Be at 100 days

100 days..........

Be at 100 days. Be Brave

Be Ready for August

Sometimes you just need a month to be OVER. While July as a whole, wasn’t a horrible month, the last couple of weeks were a lot….on a lot of levels.

I’m trying my hardest to see life in shades of gray and not completely fall into a whining pattern when things get challenging day after day after day. One skill we try to teach some of our clients in my practice is that a way to help them handle their distress (which at times can feel unmanageable), is to encourage them to find some sort of meaning in their pain….this isn’t a “turn lemons into lemonade” type of therapy, it’s more of an exercise in helping clients see that everything isn’t always black and white. And obviously I need to be reminded of this at times too (ok, lots of times).

The last couple of weeks of July brought the following:

-saying “see you soon/not really goodbye” to some dear friends traveling abroad for months :(

-my colonoscopy bill from April (saves my life every time, but…...$$$)

-my car insurance company saying they weren’t letting me renew my insurance past the end of August due to a car accident I had in 2012 (nice, eh?)

-a letter from my condo association insisting I weed my yard and get my deck stained and painted (yeah it probably needs to be done…..but grr…..$$$)

-an unexpected air conditioning repair (major $$$)

-a painful dog bite (WTF? Ouch!) with prescription for antibiotics (thankfully no rabies vaccine needed)

-poison ivy rash w/visit to Urgent Care for much needed steroids ($)

-a visit from a national accreditation agency at work for 3 days (not a huge deal but made EVERYONE turn anxious for most of the month)

So needless to say I was ready for July to be done…..financially….et al.  But if you remember from an earlier blog post, I’ve been writing at least 3 things daily that I'm grateful for since the end of May, at our triathlon team’s annual Just Tri camp. This never stopped, even in those last challenging weeks of July, when I felt like I was bleeding money and hurting emotionally.

So a few gratitude tidbits from the last few weeks of July:

-grateful for technology and FaceTime (allows me to talk to my pals who are far away and I miss deeply)

-grateful friends who support and love me through a particularly challenging day in July (one Iron-sister told me to reframe my challenging day and make it something new….so I got a pedicure with sparkly polish!)

-grateful for Franklin County Animal Control who helped me file my complaint with the owners whose dog bit me

-grateful for my doctor who called in an antibiotic for me when I was bit without fail

-grateful for my superiors at work who affirmed my work with the accreditation agency

-grateful for wine :)

-grateful for actually feeling like I have a summer (my IM training will get intense here soon, but for now having a later IM has been nice….I get to hang out with peeps, attend socials, etc)

-grateful for a friend who let me house-sit while she was away for a while in July to earn extra $$$

-grateful for a realtor friend who set me up with a guy to stain my deck for a reasonable price

-grateful for urgent care clinics and health insurance...and for medical procedures that are a pain in the butt to do every 2 years (haha, pun intended), but actually do save my life every time

-grateful for an office colleague who kept me laughing during those 3 days of accreditation review at work….sometimes a laugh can make you feel less alone

-grateful for my roommate who was willing to pay rent in advance if I needed it for the unforeseen expenses

-grateful for a running buddy who did some landscaping for me in exchange for a race entry (gotta love bartering with runners!)

So obviously the blessings still outweigh the challenges...which is probably true for much of the time, even when it’s hard to see it through the pain.  I’m sure August will have it’s own challenges (in fact I KNOW it will), but even still there is much to be grateful about….and some days this is easier to see than others. Some days are just sarcasm and wine days.

Be Ready for August. Be Brave.