DONE!!!!!!

Well, I did it! I crossed the finish line, without stopping, without walking the entire time. I believe I finished in 3:33, but I don't know my official time because I didn't know there was a computer there to check it all out. Oh, well, when I looked up the clock said 5:33:24 or something like that, and I started in the wave that went out at 2:00 into the race. So there it is. I was hoping for 3 1/2 hours, so 3 minutes longer feels awesome!!

The swim was great. Since I hydrated so much before the race, I had to pee REALLY bad by the time we got into the water for our practice swim immediately prior to our wave start. I let loose as soon as I got in. It really did help warm me up. Before you get too grossed out, let me tell you it's a common practice, ok??? My face and head were pretty cold, and my feel and hands got numb, but it didn't stop me. The kelp was even less of an issue today, in part because it was parted some by prior waves of swimmers, and in part because I knew that I was boss....I just slapped it out of the way. My teammate Nancy had had an asthma or panic attack at the practice swim yesterday, and was totally freaked out before the race, like sobbing with the coach, didn't want to get in the water. Well, I have to say the highlight of my race was getting out of the 2nd lap around the bay and seeing her right next to me. We had gotten out at exactly the same time and we yelped and gave each other a huge hug. It was so great to see her swim so well!

We ran up the beach and up a concrete path to our transition area, ripped off the goggles and cap and wetsuit--the tri suit was on underneath. Put on bike shoes helmet, and ran my bike out of transition. I felt gleefully numb, couldn't feel any pain or any cold or anything as I set out. It was a looped course and quite beautiful with crashing waves on the beach next to us the whole way (though I couldn't see so well with my foggy misty sunglasses on). We went around a loop 4 times...at one end was a bit of a hill, which sucked, but going down in the other direction was so sweet!!!! That's the one place where my size is a definite advantage....I propel down the hill way faster than those skinny chicks! The other thing about the bike was that I could see me arms now with the people's names on them in sharpie. So I would look down and be reminded that the spirit of those folks would help me. That was totally awesome!! The third loop sucked. And by the 4th, I had beseeched Zack's help to finish the bike part, and he came through. I did my bike in 1:32 or something respectable like that. No flat tires, no road rash. Check it off the list. Swim done. Bike done.

Back into transition, ripped off the bike shoes, slapped on the running shoes, ripped off the stupid foggy misty sunglasses, put on the shirt with my race number and all the people's names, and my running hat, and off I went. So many people lined the course and cheered us on. Team in Training is a big presence at many of these races, and people who didn't even know me would cheer me on. Go 1050 (my number), looking nifty! That was my fave. Go, team!! It helped so much. I smiled the whole way through the bike and the run, felt like I had permagrin. In part I was so touched to have people cheer for me like that, in part I was checking off my list and realizing that I was getting closer to being done with each stroke or rotation or step! Three loops on the run. The first loop sucked. The second loop was better, and on the third loop I was just so aware of the end coming up that I was happy. I saved a bit of energy for the push to the finish line, I felt so strong coming in, and when I crossed, our team captain Will, who is like the nicest, most supportive guy in the world was there with a big hug. I burst into tears and started sobbing. Thank God Will was there for me to hang on.....so much energy and emotion, so much training to get to that point, so much help and support along the way, so many people thought of on the race. It was a huge thrill!!!!

Now I am showered and in clean clothes, happy to be done and updating my blog. It will be good to read later, reflections from my first triathlon!!!!

Love,
Suzy

Kelp, Beautiful Kelp

This morning I had some alone time and decided to decorate my running tank top with all the names of the people I know or have heard of through my donors and friends to remember during the race--you can see their names in the column on the left of this blog page. I decided to do that and also to Sharpie their names onto my skin so they will always be with me on the race, not just for the run. It was a nice quiet moment as I reflected on the challenges that these people have faced and turned my attention away from me for awhile.

This afternoon we headed down for our practice swim to Lover's Point on our bikes, with all our swim gear stuffed into backpacks. A lovely day, low 70's, breezy and blue skies. We wet-suited up together (always a spectacle) and got our pep talk on the beach by Coach Julie. (Coach Glen actually could not come to our triathlon due to health issues that surfaced suddenly.....we are all sad about that.) Then in we dove! At the moment you pull your wetsuit out around the neck to get the big bubble of cold water in, it's quite exhilarating, shall we say! Then as I began to swim, I noticed my face feeling cold. I quickly adjusted to that when the kelp got my attention. This is no pansy kelp we are talking about, it's big bold tall graceful Amazon kelp. Comes right up to the surface and causes a muffled stalling slap when your arm comes down on it. It means business. Like that black knight in the Holy Grail, it says, "NONE SHALL PASS!" But I discovered how to deal with it. I laughed at it! Ha-ha! You big beautiful scary kelp, you think you can stop me or scare me, but you can't!! At times, I felt like I was in a veritable forest, and literally pulled myself along by the stalks. At other times, it was blessed clear salty ocean water. I kept my sense of humor, and kept "loose", as one of my friends advised. I persevered. And I did quite well. We only did one lap today around the buoys. Tomorrow in the race, we do two. But I will be confident, because I've got the kelp's number, and I love the salt water, and I will keep my sense of humor.

Tonight is our carbo-loading pasta dinner, with inspirational speakers, no doubt, and a team meeting in which Glen will be patched in by speakerphone to pump us up. Then I hope to get a good night's sleep before the early morning wake-up time of 4:15! I picked up my packet today and discovered that my start time tomorrow is 9:15am. Plenty of time to fret. Send positive thoughts, PLEASE!

HERE I GO!!!

I haven't written in awhile, mostly because I have been too busy training, vacationing, backpacking, traveling to a funeral and getting ready to send the kids back to school. And now here I stand on the verge of heading out to Pacific Grove, California to do my triathlon. We leave tomorrow morning. And on Saturday at some unknown time after 7 am, I will be standing in a crowd of swimmers in my wetsuit ready to run down the beach into the kelpy water of the Monterey Bay to begin the first leg of the triathlon. I really cannot believe it. And yet, there is a part of me that knows I am ready for this. I know that the collective spirit of all the people I am thinking of or remembering as I do this will help propel me ever forward, through the fear and the pain and whatever else might surface as I plod through. Either my t-shirt or my body will be covered in names of people who inspire me to continue. This is amazing!! Thanks for all of your support. It is almost here, and almost over. Stay tuned.

What a Weekend!

Wow! This weekend was just packed with training. We had an intense brick on Saturday, with a 25 mile bike followed by a 5 mile run. This is the closest we will come in our training to the actual distance of the triathlon. We were instructed to "Push it like we would in the race", so we could know our limits and learn how much is too much or not enough. I shared a "mission moment" before we took off. Our team dedicated the workout to Zack and Elisa, our two friends with leukemia. Elisa is now officially done with her treatment, and Zack still has a ways to go, but both are doing well. I wanted to acknowledge them for all that they have endured so far on their journey, and was especially moved as I recalled Zack's difficulties last summer and his long stint in the PICU at Doernbecher. I decided that I really must name my bike Zack, because for me the biking is the hardest part, and I always think of him and how my struggles to ride the thing pale in comparison to what he has endured. So I got to wear the vest with the names of all the people our teammates know who have been affected by blood cancers, and I have to say, it helped me so much! There was some magic in it: I felt strong and powerful, like a superhero!

Sunday morning found our team reassembled at the Nehalem Bay State Park boat dock in our goofy wetsuits. It was our first cold water ocean swim, and it, too, was awesome. There was something about the cold salty water that was so refreshing, and I imagined our group as a school of dolphins slicing through the water. We did have an adventure, though, that dolphins could have conquered much more easily than we did! We were instructed to swim to the green buoys, either the first, second or third, along the shoreline. If we got to the third and turned around it would be about a mile. That was not considering the tide coming in though! A group of us somehow got a bit farther out into the channel where the tide was really pouring in, and as we passed the first buoy and continued on towards the second, I kept noticing as I sighted ahead of me that the darn thing just never got any closer. At first I thought it was an optical illusion. But then I looked towards shore and saw how quickly I was being carried backwards to where I had just come from. We were basically swimming in place!! So though we barely made it past that first buoy, we difinitely swam the distance! And we even managed to not be consumed by any great white sharks to boot!! After that experience, I finally got the internal confirmation I had been waiting for: I CAN DO THIS TRIATHLON! If I could complete Saturday's brick, and then successfully navigate the ocean in my wetsuit, I can put it all together on Sept. 12th! Yippee!!

First Open Water Swim

Yesterday evening, I did my first open water swim at Clackamette Cove in Oregon City with my team. Getting into the wetsuit is no easy task. There is lots of greasing up that happens. Some use body glide, some use Pam cooking spray (for real!), and we do this all in a GROUP! 3/4ths of the way into my suit, (no easy feat), I looked down and noticed that the zipper was in the front....OOPS! I had put it on backwards! As my teammates laughed at me and grabbed for the cameras, I hastily peeled it off and started over. Once in, I realized that with the swim cap it's actually not a very attractive look. I am reminded of bullets, or perhaps sperm, or something along those lines. The neckline was also quite high and I felt like it was choking me. Getting into the water, I discovered something else, which is that a wetsuit it like your own personal raft. Too bad we weren't there to crack open a beer and float around the lake together. Instead, Coach Julie made us swim! It was harder to stay on course with 1.) no black stripe on the bottom and 2.) no ability to see anything anyway. So swimming out to a buoy may seem like a simple task, but I believe my course looked rather z-like, as in zigzag. I also clocked a fellow teammate in the head, ran a few people over, was run over myself. In general, mayhem! It was kinda fun in some respects, but the choking feeling was exascerbated when I exerted myself and I felt very out of breath. Later in the swim, Julie informed me that I was kicking way too much and that the extra exertion probably contributed to the breathlessness. We are not supposed to kick much in the swim part of a triathlon in order to preserve out legs for the bike and run, but if you've swum much at all in your life, it can be a hard habit to break. So now my wetsuit is sporting a soccer ball in the neck to try to stretch it out, and I am hopeful that our swim in Nehalem Bay this weekend will be smoother. I am so glad we are practicing this stuff ahead of time!!!

Thank God for Chris!!

I REALLY did not want to get up this morning and do the stupid 2.5 miles uphill group run to Pittock Mansion along the Wildwood Trail from Lower Macleay Park. I was fine with the concept of the 2.5 miles back down, but the uphill thing at 7:15 am was enough to make me self-pitying and stubborn. When my alarm clock went off at 6am, I repeatedly hit the snooze enough times to wake up Chris, who then went downstairs and brewed me some coffee to entice me out of bed. I whined, "I don't want to go work out." He countered, "You'll feel better afterwards." I whined again, "But I had such an intense day at work yesterday, and I'm sick of working out. It's hard...." He said, "Drink your coffee. You'll feel better, and then you can just go." I tasted it, and realized it had a funky flavor and that it was, through a coffee bag labelling fault of mine, all decaf. He brewed me another with some caffeine in it. Does this man love me or what?? It worked! I also thought of my teammates who are injured and can't run right now. They'd be thrilled to be able to run the distance. They helped, too.

As expected, uphill sucked. I've never related to those types of people who say that uphill is easier because of your footing and all that. Uphill is always harder and those people are WRONG! They shouldn't be allowed to spread such lies. Thankfully, my teammate Cindy went with me the whole way. So we talked a bit, and that helped it go by a bit faster. And we commiserated, which helped a lot. And the scenery in Forest Park was so beautiful, and that helped, too. We sucked wind together. At the top of the hill, we heard the telltale cowbell, and refreshed ourselves at the big water cooler that teammate Andy was staffing for us, and then it was sweet, heavenly downhill for the remainder. And then the endorphins. I absolutely love those free drugs. So this morning, when it's all said and done, I am grateful: for Chris, for coffee, for my teammates, for my coaches, and for endorphins.

M(uuuugggggggg)y

Yesterday's run was hard. I thought getting out there at 6:30 am would be early enough to avoid the intense heat, but no! I started sweating in the first minute--the humidity reminded me of my childhood summers. It was a 4.5 mile Level 3 run (Level 1 is where you can talk to your running buddy and tell your life's story easily, Level 5 is approaching death, at Level 3 you should be able to communicate in 1-word sentences and occasional grunts.) That doesn't stop the conversation in my head however, which was quite loqoacious. It mostly was directed at my coach, Glen. Kind of like how birthing women get mad at their husbands, triathletes take it out on their coaches: "He probably looked at the weather schedule for July, found the prediction for the absolute hottest day, and scheduled this blasted workout for today!" "Thanks a lot, Glen!" "Rackum frackum %&*&^$%%!!!" Not that I REALLY think that. He's actually a very nice guy. He is an Ironman Champion, so he can be intense, but he can only do the challenging tough talk for so long before he has to profess his love for all of us. Having lost a loved one to lymphoma, he appreciates what we are doing and volunteers hours of his time to whip our sorry butts into shape. And really, all he wants is for us to do well, make it through race day without injury, and have fun along the way. As a bunch of novice triathletes, what more could we want from a coach?

Back to the run, I was glad to have my shoe tag with the emergency numbers on it on my running shoe that day. Besides the mental conversation with Glen, I had a morbid scenario of me going down from heatstroke playing in my mind. Wondering how long it would take to locate the shoe tag depending on which position I landed in. Who would find me? Judging from the early morning Forest Park jogging crowd, it would probably be a 22 year old blond woman with shorts that barely covered her bottom and a sports bra that would fit around my arm to hold my walkman in place (if we were allowed to use them, that is: no electronics in the race, so none with the workouts.) Since she would be in fantastic shape, then after a brief moment of indecision of whether to interrupt her stellar sub-6 minute mile workout to help me, would make it back to civilization rather quickly. I would be ok. But just in case, I didn't quite push it to a level 3.

I think Glen has a 6mile loop scheduled for Saturday's group practice; 3 miles uphill to Pittock Mansion, then 3 miles downhill. Meanie. I love you, too.