Triathlete

 

 

 

Originally written for http://usatflladies.blogspot.com

In order to really explain my rise in the sport over the past 12 plus years, I think it is important to state exactly what I am now. I am a 33-year-old 2x Kona AG qualifier, several times 70.3 Worlds AG qualifier starting my first year racing professionaly. I have overall wins and age group placements in all distances from sprints to double Ironman's. I routinely have the top amateur bike split as well as one of the top amateur runs at any race I compete in. I had a long-standing competitive career in ultramarathons with wins across all distances. I have one of the top five fastest female times ever recorded at the Badwater 135 ultramarathon across Death Valley in the middle of July. I have run self-supported for 155 miles across the Sahara desert at the world renowned Marathon de Sable. Based on a dare and a borrowed bike, I rode the famed Furnace Creek 508 bike race which boasts 35,000 feet of elevation gain across 10 mountain passes in a nonstop cycling format. All of that being stated, it is a short list of my athletic accomplishments to date.

Now if you met me at the grocery store, at the start line of the swim in a triathlon or even trained with me a while, there is a good chance you would never know any of that. So why did I start off with it? Because the takeaway of it all is that none of that matters. Any accolades, any times, any wins or losses, none of that matters in life. What matters is who you become over the course of doing the sport.

The subtle changes that occur in the human psyche from the day in and day out relentless pursuit of a goal that nobody understands but you.

That is where the magic lies.

I didn't grow up athletic, actually far from it. I almost did not graduate my senior year of high school because I had too many absences in my PE class. I wasn't much an academic for that matter either. I was a shy slacker that did just enough to coast by. My focus was helping take care of my brothers, a couple of which have mental disabilities. I went to University of Central Florida for a few of years and dropped out to work in the family textile business. At 21 I found myself overwhelmed with my job, no college education, recently married, not very confident and never having really stuck with anything the whole life. I was really concerned how this is going to play out for my future. Running, of all things, spoke to me. Specifically marathon running. To me those people looked like they were so disciplined and had it so together in all aspects of their life. Clearly if I could just commit to and run a marathon, I would be well on my way too. I trained for and ran the Disney Marathon that year and although I was in excruciating pain and swore I would never do it again, deep down I knew that wasn't true. I was hooked on everything about it. More marathons quickly followed but something was still missing, some giant void that I couldn't quite place. Around that time I saw a documentary on the Badwater 135 mile ultra-marathon. I spent the next eight years living in Atlanta and slowly building my race resume with everything from Ironman's to 100 mile races in order to be accepted into one of the most grueling races in the world. In 2011, shortly before move back to Florida, I was granted that privilege. It was during that eight-year span in my life, during the countless hours on the bike and 50 mile solo runs, that I really learned the most about myself. Very rarely in today's comfort driven society do we experience true pain or exhaustion. Where everything is available "right now",

Dogged determination and drive is something that is seldom rewarded and even more rarely purposefully sought after. I think that is what drives people to compete in these amazing feats of endurance. It bleeds into every other aspect of their lives and you cannot help but be a better person because of it.

After moving back to Florida, I made qualifying for Kona Ironman AG World Championships my goal. This was far from easy and took me almost 2 years of purposeful training to build the speed necessary to place amongst the top age group triathletes in the world.

I believe dreams should be big, almost unattainable and should scare the hell out of you every day.

That is what makes them worth waking up and going for. I didn't learn how to ride a bike until my mid-20s, I just learned how to clip in and out of cycling shoes about  for my first Ironman and I still may get a little nervous reaching for my water bottle on a really windy day, but

I don't let those things deter me. I don't think anybody should.