This one time, at tri-camp…

Do you remember that feeling you used to get when you were a kid just before leaving for camp? That excitement – so much so you became nauseous? Well, that’s how I felt before my first EVER tri camp. A camp for a team I’ve been trying to get on for years and I FINALLY earned a spot! What if I forget something? What if I mess up and they make fun of me? What if my teammates don’t like me? What if…

Before I even made it out my front door I got a message that my flight was delayed. Good thing I had a direct flight!

I left the house plenty early, only to discover there was a car accident and traffic was the worst I’ve seen it since being in San Antonio. Of course! My luck! My anxiety was driving my hubby crazy! Good thing the flight was delayed! I still cut it close and was squirming in the security line, which probably didn’t look good to the security folks…

I arrived about an hour late to Tampa where I found a man in a suit with an iPad, with MY name on it! I felt so important! He asked if I had any luggage and I replied, “This is it!” referring to my 2 carry-on bags. He asked, “Really?” looking quite confused which of course led me to doubt what I decided to bring. Regardless, out to the black SUV we went!

My luck with drivers is AWESOME (sarcasm). As I sucked seat up my rear while flinching and trying not to grab the dash board for fear of my life, the driver asked if I minded if we stop at an Arby’s we were passing so he could use the rest room. I quickly answered yes! I haven’t been in an Arby’s in a really long time, so the smell of French fries was overwhelming. I couldn’t help myself so I pigged out on a Reuben meal with their AWESOME curly fries (definitely not good for my diet, but I was so hungry and haven’t had them in a really long time).

When we finally made it to IMG Academy I was asked to have a picture taken for an ID… uhhhh… tired and looking like doo-doo I asked if I could make a face – they said YES!

 

After being dropped off at my apartment (2 bedroom with 2 twin beds in each room, shared by 4 teammates) I unpacked and went out to explore! Winn Dixie grocery store was right around the corner so I got some snacks which I didn’t end up needing since IMG fed us a TON plus the PowerBar snacks! Scoped out a nail salon to get a pedicure since I got there a day early J

Ann and Tim from Germany were the first teammates I met but it was pretty late (for me = like 10PM HA!) when they arrived so we chatted a little and crashed out! I learned that avocados are really expensive in Germany which explained why Ann was chowing down on some guacamole! Love that stuff! Too bad I can’t mail it from San Antonio where we have boat-loads of it!

I woke up early to eat with Ann, Tim and another teammate, Per. Apparently Ben Greenfield got into town too but was still crashed out J The food we had at IMG was delicious! All the fresh fruit, yogurt, eggs, potatoes, and oatmeal we could eat and the coffee was pretty good too! We were able to get in about a 7 mile jog a few hours later while awaiting the official start of camp. It was windy! No gator sightings though L We had a little detour through a golf course and Per managed to leap a large ditch, but eventually made our way back to the rooms just in time for lunch (yes food is close to my #1 priority)!

Our first session included introductions in which we had to share our name, where we’re from and an interesting fact about us before we started tri’s.  I quickly learned that this team is a LOT of fun! From news casters to stock brokers and tennis players, Timex Multisport Team represents an extremely diverse FAMILY of SPECTACULAR athletes with very diverse backgrounds.

The session went on to include a keynote address by Victoria Arlen. At 19 years old, she’s been through more than most adults. If you don’t know her history, I strongly suggest you check it out:  http://www.victoriaarlen.com.

At the end of the evening we got goodies from some of our sponsors to include: Timex, Nathan, SBR, and PowerBar.

The next morning we had an early wake up call for a group swim workout.  Gotta love being woken up by the beeping of a bus backing up!

 

Then quickly back to IMG for b-FAST (I knew they called it that for a reason) and run over to the stadium for some lessons on what’s coming out from Shimano, Blueseventy, Skins, Timex, and Trek. We also had a chance to share what we like and don’t like about various products. It was nice to see the companies truly caring about what athletes think about their products and wanting to make them better for us. All I will say is that they have some really sweet stuff about to be released! We proceeded right into our Annual 5k (Florida Tourist Theme) – Looks like I fit right in with the Team!

 

I was so excited when we got to pick up our new Castelli kits! They are so FREAKING awesome! I love the little hooks to keep from getting a ‘tramp-stamp’ sunburn on the lower back! They are easy enough to release to go to the bathroom real quick too! Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to try them on because I finally got the paperwork to close on my old house in Florida. FINALLY!

First problem – They misspelled my name. Nice!

Second problem – I have to get it notarized and shipped back to them ASAP since it was Friday and closing is the next week!

Third problem – IMG’s notary is out and I don’t have a car to get to the closest place that MIGHT notarize and ship my paperwork. Supposedly, it was within walking distance though…

Fourth problem – It wasn’t within walking distance. I was asking for help at a Walgreens and a really nice woman and her mother overheard and offered me a ride… Being from the DC area originally, I hesitated but I REALLY wanted to sell my house since we had already moved to Texas, so I accepted the offer and hopped in.

Fifth problem – Banks do not notarize for you unless you have an account with them. Luckily, an insurance company nearby did… but for $20 cash only so I had to run back to the bank to get $ out of an ATM. Good thing a FedEx was in the same shopping center.

Sixth problem – As I was packaging it up after making photocopies I read that it was supposed to be accomplished in BLUE ink not black! CRAP! So I ran back to the insurance company and they called the title company and they said it would be okay. Phew! Finally! Able to ship it – return receipt = Yes please!

Seventh problem – I’m about 20 minutes from the IMG and only have 40 minutes until I have to be ready for the bus to take us to the Awards Dinner and I’ve been running around in the Florida heat for over an hour... OH CRAP! As we scramble back with the nice folks who picked me up and drove me around for what seemed like forever I almost cried! I was so thankful that there are still some VERY nice people in the world!

I felt I earned a few drinks so I indulged at the dinner and had a great time learning more about my teammates and sponsors. Most memorable was my teammate, Bo Parrish’s inspirational speech. Here’s the audio: http://boparrish.me/speaking/timex-camp/. I cried a little… It just goes to show that someone s always listening so please choose your words carefully. It could mean life or death. Afterwards I was so tired, but glad that everything was finally coming together. Not surprisingly, I didn’t make it to the swim the next morning… I slept in and it felt WONDERFUL!

On the last day of camp, we had a ton of photos before departing. We all hated to leave, but I know I look forward to staying in touch with all the new friends I made. I wish that we all lived closer, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of the Team. Until next year, Stay Silly Team Timex!

So you think you wanna go pro? Think again!

I’ve heard a lot of age groupers complain about the special treatment of the professional triathletes, but few have competed on both sides.

There are a lot of advantages to racing as a pro.

- Complimentary race entries at many large races

- Cool ‘Elite’ USAT Membership Card which always makes volunteers do a ‘double-take’
- Toe the line next to the BEST in the WORLD!

- Eat and hang out with the BEST in the WORLD!

- Get to know the BEST in the WORLD!

- Start races FIRST which avoids the chaos especially in large Ironman starts

- Get to wait until race morning to drop off your bike (at most large races)
- Get to wait until closer to the date of large events to register
- Homestays :)

Lots of folks have asked me why I went pro and my response was almost always, “Why not?” If I could, then why wouldn’t I take advantage of my fitness while I still can? Especially after seeing all the advantages! However, over the years I started questioning my decision - especially considering I work full time. Here’s my rationale:

- Get A$$ kicked by BEST in the WORLD!
- Have to pull results if I do not place overall in events that do not contain a pro field (so if you’re having a bad day you can’t just take a bad time, you essentially are considered DNF)
- Rarely place overall in a large event
- Get A$$ kicked by BEST in the WORLD some more!
- A LOT more pressure
- Colder wetsuit cutoff (68 for Olympic distance even if it’s cold outside too)
- Little to no one around you while racing = boring
- Harder to obtain sponsorship because harder to place
- Get A$$ kicked by BEST in the WORLD even more!

After almost a decade of racing as a pro, I decided to retire my card. It was a tough decision and, yes, I was very sad. Almost immediately after I decided, I emailed the teams I had applied to for sponsorship. Within a day, EVERY ONE OF THEM OFFERED ME SPONSORSHIP! For all these years I’ve been a pro, I struggled with the pressure and the rejection of sponsors. I had no idea placing as an age grouper carried more weight than being a professional – albeit a back-of-the-pack professional.

So, if you are considering going pro, I suggest either 1 – get sponsors BEFORE you go and HOPE they stick with you when you go; or 2 – go all the way and know that you really need to make it a full-time job to get good sponsors as a pro; or 3 – go anyway since YOU CAN.

WANTED: Fast, non-judgmental training partner w/ tri-bike & open to travel

True Friends

Our friends’ influence us every day.  We often become like the people we associate with most.  With big dreams come tough challenges!  During these times we often discover how good our friends really are, or aren’t. 

When I was in college, I hated running.  I played 4 years of basketball and avoided long distance running like a plague… until I came across the Leukemia Society Team in Training opportunity to travel to Hawaii!  I always wanted to go to Hawaii and I figured if I could raise the money, then I could just walk the marathon.  When I told some of my friends, they told me I was crazy.  I listened.  Not only did I not make it to Hawaii, I didn’t even try! 

When I moved to Florida after college, I started gaining weight since I didn’t have basketball conditioning to fall back on.  I noticed a woman a few houses down from mine running a lot, so I started running with her… more like jog-walking barely able to make it 2 miles!  So maybe my friends were right, I must be crazy!  I stuck with it though – did a few 5ks and the run portion of sprint relays – always passing out in the car on the way home. 

Eventually, my friend helped me to complete my first sprint tri (non-relay). Of course, it decided to storm at day, but the race went on!  Unfortunately, my other ½ (at the time) decided not to show up so as I crossed the finish line I didn’t see him.  I kept looking…  no luck.  Needless to say, that relationship didn’t work out. 

The next few years, my training friends helped me prep for my first ever half ironman.  It wasn’t pretty, but I did it all!  Over the years, my times were sliced-and-diced!  I went from a 6ish hour half Ironman to a sub-5 hour just about everywhere I went all while working full time and going to school.  The next other ½ (at the time) pushed me to get a lot faster until one race he thought I beat him.  At the finish, he told me I was moving out so I laughed… he didn’t.  And another one bites the dust!

I felt I had plateaued and wasn’t making improvements.  I was aching and was generally not having much fun in the sport anymore so I took a break.  In all my spare time working full time I completed a doctoral program in Biomedical Sciences – many told me I couldn’t do both.  So what do I do?  Both AND kept training for triathlons!  I did have to cut back and ended up taking off about 2 years from serious racing, but otherwise I learned a lot both in and out of school.  Like who would help support me in this challenging time especially when my new other half deployed to Afghanistan.  One friend in particular helped me more than any other!  What made it more important was that I didn’t have to ask for the help. 

Throughout his deployment, I quickly learned he would be there for me no matter what I decided to do.  He helped me study from Iraq and Afghanistan.  He was proud of me when I beat him in a race and I was proud of him when he beat me.  After a history of relationships that didn’t work out, I finally found the one!  Funny how it is during these challenging times in life that you often find out who your true friends are!  It makes me wonder what life would’ve been like if I was able to find such good friends that would support me through all the tough times and challenging goals earlier in life? 

Through triathlon, we meet a TON of wonderful people but it’s hard to keep in touch with all of them, let alone which ones to reach out to for training companionship no matter where we are in the world.  One app that can help you find great friends like these to be there when you are looking for a challenge is Activebudz.  Download it here:  Activebudz app  And if you’re ever curious of who your real friends are – see how they react to your next challenge!

So Long Longhorn

Of course – we were in the middle of a drought in TX and I pick the one weekend it’s supposed to rain! It was Crazy HOT two years ago and Crazy COLD last year. Thank you Coach Karen for making me go out rain, or shine! Luckily it didn’t rain on the drive up to Austin. I stayed with my first homestay EVER! They were AWESOME! Mike works for Livestrong and Tori works in scientific publishing so we all had lots to chat about!

Mandatory Hair-E-Butts trip! HEB Plus!!! Oh yeah!

Onto the expo! It wasn’t too crazy when we got there so I picked up my packet and immediately ran into some fellow Team RWBers – Caroline Gaynor, Jared Rose and Fred… as well as Jeremy Brown – the Athlete and Apparel Director for Cobb Cycling! BTW, did you know the application is out for Team Cobb Mobb? We chatted so long I was almost late to the pro meeting… whoops! They take attendance now uh oh! In the pro meeting I met Sue Huse – it’s nice to meet other women who are competitive and approachable. By the end of the pro meeting, the expo was packed! The packet pickup line was almost out the door. I stopped and chatted with the Sugoi rep (down from Canada) supporting the local shop and day dreamed of IM Canada in Whistler and IM 70.3 World’s in Mont Tremblant. One of the many cool things about Sugoi, is the meaning of the word itself – “incredible, awesome”. On my way out I just had to try the Bonk Breakers – purely scientific purposes of course… lots of replicates and trials and controls to ensure accurate data… And Steve left without me… I got a little carried away…

Back to the house to set my race gear up and test everything out – including me – to make sure everything still works. Then dinner with Team RWB at Johnnie Carino’s Italian! We arrived early to meet with my coach and a couple other friends – Esteban and Amy. At the dinner I met Brad Williams, Jessica Jones Meyers and her family, and lots of other supporters of the Eagle! The food was great! The company was energetic! I was relaxed and loving the trip – surprising for the night before a big race.

After dinner we tucked in and passed out – or I did. Steve apparently tossed and turned, but I was out cold! I slept great until about 3am when I woke up and was ready to race! Way to freaking early! Then it started pouring… I was able to go back to sleep a little, but kept waking up thinking it was time to go. By the time the alarm went off at about 5:30am the rain had slowed to a drizzle! YEAH!!! It continued to sprinkle on us as we readied our gear in transition. We tip-toed to the swim start while trying to avoid the ‘Goat Heads’ (no relationship to Steve’s ‘The Goat’). The rain never started back up the rest of the day. Cloud cover = kept the morning temp warmer and the afternoon cooler and really, really humid! Just like Florida! Weeee!!! The swim went great – I know I have more in me to go faster and will really focus on strength and lots of swimming this winter. T1 was painful – I was still removing ‘Goat Heads’ on Monday and my bike felt a lot heavier carrying it to the mount line than I thought it would… funny how tired my arms are after a swim… who’d-a-thought… The bike was mostly good minus the big bump around mile 25 that apparently ejected my water bottle – the full one – so I had to refuel at one of the aid stations. My first attempt at refilling the ‘Fuselage’ on my Shiv while racing was a success! It was very easy!!! Then the frustration came as another pro female passed me drafting off one of the male age groupers. For as long as she was in sight, she was drafting. This is not the first time I’ve seen this and I’m sure most of you reading this are not surprised. Why do so many draft in this sport? Why not just race ITU if you want to draft? For those of us who want to do the right thing and race clean, we are significantly hurt by your actions. It’s even more frustrating when you openly admit to doing it online and/or get caught on video drafting. So much for positive role models… It’s disappointing to see my role models and fellow competitors cheating. Enough of that crap… onto T2 – T2 was also painful as the pavement was crazy rough and laden with loose gravel. I usually have pretty tough feet (considering the glass I had in my foot for months while still running). When Steve and Esteban asked how I felt all I could say was, “This sucks!” while pointing to my feet and the pavement. Onto the run, a 3 loop out and back course with some rolling hills – of course! It’s Hill Country!!! The cloud cover kept the temps nice, but made it crazy humid! The rain made the turn around point feel like an Xterra race! Jim, Matty P, and Jenky probably remember the long run through Conservation Park when our feet were loaded up with about 1-2 pounds of mud! That’s what it felt like! Laps 2 and 3 I learned where I should step to avoid a ton of mud! All this and I still held onto my run time from Augusta – which is a completely flat run! Thanks to Coach Karen, I continue to make gains on my run!

Although this was the last biggie of my season, I am looking forward to a little time off. I am anxious about planning my next season and finally making it into the gym. My husband Steve has been dying to get me into the gym for some off-season strength training. I’d almost rather do an Ironman than go through one of his workouts ;) I’m sure I’ll race several smaller races here and there in and around San Antonio as I start working on building my base – and of course support the Rock N Roll Marathon here in a few weeks. That and trying to avoid gaining 20 pounds this holiday season (as proved to Mike Connors in person on the scales at work)!

Transitions

Maybe not entirely about the ones you imagined based on the title, but still related…

As triathletes, we envision transitions as a rapid and chaotic change from one sport to the next.  When we first stand up after finishing the swim, we find ourselves dizzy and wobbly, but hopefully we manage to quickly adapt and find our way to the bike.  If it’s a wetsuit swim, we fumble around – often falling, cursing, and falling again while trying to strip off the constrictive device before grabbing our protective equipment and hopping onto our speed machine (bike).  Hopefully, we manage to escape T1 and execute a flying dismount without kicking off our water bottles, or hitting a cone (sorry Ben, I couldn’t help it!), or a face plant (as I did when I was flustered after not being able to get my wetsuit off).  It’s only a matter of time before our next transition… 

My T1 – Our lives mimic the transitions of a triathlon in many ways.  I recently completed my doctoral degree (a painful experience, every bit as difficult as an Ironman if not an Ultra!) and moved to the Lone Star State (really Steve and his Mom did all the moving, I just timed it so I wouldn’t have to lift a finger :).  Although the change was planned, finding employment on the other side was not as easy as expected.  I haven’t had to look for a job in about 13 years.  I found myself dizzy and disoriented but quickly adapted to the online application systems.  I quickly learned that it’s more about who you know, are able to reach on the phone, and if you can arrange face-to-face meetings with prospective employers.

Approaching T2 – you know it’s coming up.  You know what you need to do.  But what you need to do and what actually happens are not always synonymous.  I’ve forgotten to pull my feet completely out of my bike shoes before a flying dismount which resulted in an epic crash.  I did manage not to curse but may have chipped my teeth in my grimace of pain.  I’ve left my nutrition behind.  I’ve forgotten my race number.  I’ve nearly gotten lost in transition.  Name the mistake, I have probably made it!  It’s how I deal with and recover from those mistakes that determine my overall performance.  Even when I’ve made ridiculous mistakes, I have still managed to pull it all together if I kept a positive attitude.  I remember Jessica Jacobs telling me about one of her IMFL experiences when she flatted at least 3 times but kept going!  And another IMFL where she lost one of her aero pads = OUCH!!!  She still WON! 

My T2 – Selling our house in todays’ market is NOT fun! Especially while managing a move, trying to find a job, and completing a doctoral dissertation all at the same time.  I guess it’s better than dragging the stress out…  Even though the markets are tough, both job and house, we just kept each small step in mind as we prepared the house for sale and transitioned to San Antonio.  Just as in triathlon, visualizing and tackling the smaller steps – taking a deep breath – and trying to enjoy the process makes a stressful situation more manageable. 

We cannot always control change.  It is how we chose to deal with change – expected, or unexpected – that defines who we are (especially how we deal with it when no one is looking).