Yesterday was my very first triathlon and I lived through it!!!!!! It's all I can think about and talk about! There were 9 ladies from our ward who did it together. And we totally bonded through the whole experience. We have been riding our bikes together at times, we did a couple of mock triathlons a couple of Saturdays, and we even went this last week and swam in the lake where the triathlon was located just to get us over the fear of the lake. You should have seen us....9 moms with about 12 children (including 4 babies). We decided to go in two waves so that half of us could watch the kids while the other half swam, and then switch. Swimming in the lake that day really helped us all feel a lot more confident. So yesterday came and it was a BLAST! The triathlon was a sprint triathlon so it was a 1/2 mile swim first, a 12 mile bike, and a 2.75 mile run. My friend Amy and I have been teasing each other that we wanted to beat each other. (very friendly competition). So we started, I did the swim in 11:45 and beat Amy out of the water. But by the time I got to the transition area and was putting on my shoes she had caught up to me....I took off on my bike first, but about 4 miles into the bike she passed me, saying "on your left missy" as she went :) I tried the whole time on the bike to catch up to her but couldn't. I did the bike section in 39:08. Then by the run I was so anxious to catch her but my legs weren't working right and I couldn't get them to move any faster. I did the run in 25:02. So my total time was 1 hour and 20 minutes!!!!! Amy came in 4th place in the novice category (with a time of 1 hour and 18 minutes) and I came in 7th!!!! There were about 62 novice competitors! So it was such a fun day! It meant so much to me to have Matt and the kids there yelling for me along the way! We had a crazy moment when they first posted the times we all ran over to see the results and poor Emma lost sight of us. Soon the announcer was saying "we have a little lost girl named Emma if her parents could come to the announcers area to pick her up!" YIKES! She was heart broken and I felt so bad for her. She didn't care that I was soaking wet, I scooped her up and held on to her tight! :)
OH! I forgot the most exciting part of the triathlon!!!!!! One of the 9 ladies from our ward is a major runner, and she swam for BYU in college. So we knew she would do well. SHE WON FIRST PLACE OVERALL!!!!!! She was in second most of the race, in fact the girl in first was ahead of Larrell by 3 minutes going into the run. But Larrell pulled ahead and beat her by about 50 seconds! She is amazing! She did the whole thing in 1 hour and 6 minutes. I was so proud of her!
OH! I forgot the most exciting part of the triathlon!!!!!! One of the 9 ladies from our ward is a major runner, and she swam for BYU in college. So we knew she would do well. SHE WON FIRST PLACE OVERALL!!!!!! She was in second most of the race, in fact the girl in first was ahead of Larrell by 3 minutes going into the run. But Larrell pulled ahead and beat her by about 50 seconds! She is amazing! She did the whole thing in 1 hour and 6 minutes. I was so proud of her!
Stefanie Dowdy, Jessica Martinez, Amy Lopez, Andrea Rediske, Beckie Lowe, Marie Winchester, Tracy Bosch, Me, and our winner Laurel Lockard 
1 comments:
I loved all the emails that my friends and I passed around afterward about the feelings we had...here are a few:
LAUREL LOCKARD wrote:
To everyone,
I just wanted everyone to know how truly impressed I have been by
all of you. I have been an athlete pretty much my whole life and
love to exercise. I have also been in many wards with women who say
they want to get in shape and lose wieght. I always tried to get
them to find a race they could do and make it a goal to do it.
Nobody ever did and nobody kept exercising. I still am amazed at
how many of you, from different exercise backgrounds, decided to
compete and everyone finished. It just blows me away.
Thanks for inviting me to participate,
Larrell
AMY LOPEZ wrote:
I AM SO PROUD OF US! I was telling a college friend about the triathlon and about our pre-race lake swim (I have told a few of you this story), and she told me how lucky I was to have friends that were "athletes" and willing
to do a triathlon with me. She said she could not picture any of her friends doing a "lake swim". I don't know if all of us would have considered ourselves "athletes" before this race, but we certainly are now! Yea! I just kept thinking about how lucky I was to have friends that would be willing to put themselves "out there" and do something like this. It made
all the difference for me. It has been one of the most exciting things in my life. I have exercised for all of my adult life, consistantly since
college, never taking a break. But in the past when groups from my gym would ask me to do triathlons, I declined, without hesitation. Put me in a step aerobics class, but don't make me "compete". I truly didn't think I could do it. I have hated running my whole life, but about 8 years ago decided to get over my fear. So I started running hear and there and I have competed in 5k's a little...but still never never wanted to go near anything
like a triathlon. Then I feel like Rachel inspired so many of us. And we spread the inspiration...and it finally became such a wonderful thing for
us to do together. It was an opportunity for me to push myself into something new, but to do it among friends who could give real support. I am so impressed with all of you. So many new skills were learned from the ground
up. That is serious courage. I have the best friends in the world and I seriously have such high regard for you all. I watched Jessica play her beautiful and touching violin piece at stake conference, and I was so amazed. I wanted to stand up and tell everyone "THAT WOMAN DID A TRIATHLON THIS MORNING...AND GAVE BIRTH TO A CHILD 3 MONTHS AGO". And I feel that way about all of you. I was looking at all of our posted photos and I was truly
proud to be associated with you. To see Larrells pictures, out there in front, yet to know the quiet, humble, encouraging, and unassuming woman that she is, was so neat. WAY TO GO...to all of us.
Thanks again for the fun time. I think I am addicted.
Love Amy
BECKIE LOWE wrote:
It has been fun to read everybody's emails and to feel the excitement. I have had mixed emotions about the whole thing and feel bad that I'm reacting this way. For those of you that have seen the times, I'm sure you realize that I didn't finish the entire run. I understand that it may not be my fault, but I still feel like I didn't complete the race. I hate that this is casting a dark cloud over the whole experience for me. I think I just need some closure. So, I have decided to add 8 minutes to my run time, which I think would have been a more accurate time for me. I have also thought about a bunch of things I learned from this race and would like to share them with you.
Beckie's Top Ten List of Things She Learned About Triathlons
1. You're not the only one worried about having to go to the bathroom during the race. Sara, this is one of my best memories about the whole experience. We are bonded forever.
2. Check often when you are swimming to make sure you aren't veering off course. Otherwise you have to swim further.
3. Remember to hook your brakes back up after you reattach your front wheel, otherwise you're going to have to stop and do it.
4. Make sure your seat is clamped tightly so it doesn't slide down while your riding and you have to stop twice to raise it back up.
5. After you take your bike for a tuneup, ride it around for a while to make sure nothing is rubbing or clicking or you will have to stop and fix it.
6. Swim in the same clothes you are going to bike and run it.
7. Get a belt to attach your number and chapstick case to so you can clip and go.
8. You can't have a competitive time when you're riding a mountain bike.
9. Memorize the race map before the race, especially for the run portion, so you at least have a clue if you're going the wrong way.
10. It is so important to have people at the finish line to cheer you in. Thank you Rachel for coming, that meant the world to me. I kind of think of it this way-you know that old saying, "If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and noone is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?" I also say, "If you finish a triathlon without anyone seeing you finish, did you really finish?" I know this is a little crazy, but I hope you get my point. A big part of accomplishing something is being able to share it with others, I'm glad I was able to share this with you.
Beckie
ANDREA REDISKE wrote:
And When Through Deep Waters I Call Thee to Go…
When I was a little girl, about 4 or 5, I nearly drowned in the Snake River during a ward campout. I have few memories of the event – just being under the water and seeing the murky brownness, and then being pulled out by the father of one of my friends. I was afraid of the water for a little while, but my parents signed me up for swimming lessons, and I became a fairly good swimmer. I never did like open water, however.
Growing up, I was about as geeky as you could get – I wore glasses, loved science classes, and I had asthma. PE was torture for me, especially when we had to run. Running was my nemesis because it always seemed like I either had an asthma attack from running or I worked myself up into such a frenzy that I gave myself an asthma attack just by virtue of the fact that we were running in PE. Needless to say I was never much of an athlete growing up.
I found fencing in college, and I loved it – for the first time in my life I was doing something athletic. I felt strong and powerful, and I actually beat the boys! No running was required, but strength, agility, and intelligence (and being left-handed, which I am) gave you an advantage. I fenced for several years, became a nationally ranked fencer and competed in events all over the country. For the first time ever, I felt like an athlete. It was one of the best times of my life.
Then, I met the man who would become my husband, I started graduate school, and I decided it was time to hang up the foil and become an adult. I was so sad to stop fencing, and I still miss it every day. But, I realized you can either be a hard-core fencer, or you can have a life and a family. I chose the latter. Chris was a runner – he had run in 5k’s practically his whole life; he has long legs and lots of stamina. He encouraged me to run with him, and I was a dismal failure. But we ended up running some 5k’s together despite my lack of ability. It was always torture for me. When people talked about a “runner’s high” I just laughed. Running was nothing but pain for me, but I did it because I knew I needed to get some exercise. I tried to hold on to the athleticism I had developed when I was fencing, but life got in the way, so I just tried to stay in some kind of shape.
Fast forward to about 9 months ago: I was pregnant with my third son and sitting in a book group discussion with some close friends. Three of us were pregnant at the time, and one of our friends started telling us about the triathlon that she was going to compete in. It was an all-women sprint triathlon – ½ mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run. All of us got really excited about the idea of competing in a triathlon. Each leg of the triathlon seemed entirely doable, so we all committed then and there to do the next one in October. The excitement spread to others, and we ended up with 9 women from our ward who were training for the event.
Six weeks after my son was born via c-section, I headed back to the gym. I hadn’t exactly been in tip-top shape before I got pregnant, so I was kind of starting at ground zero. I worked out a schedule of running, biking, and swimming, but it was hard work, and there were many times when I was so exhausted and sore I didn’t know that I could maintain my training schedule. But the excitement generated by my friends kept me going. When we saw each other in the hallway at church, we talked about the triathlon. When we went to Relief Society and to Enrichment activities together, we talked about the triathlon. When we met each other at the park or in play groups with our kids, we talked about the triathlon. We worked out together, we gave each other tips and ideas that we’d read about and heard about from other people who had done triathlons. It was amazing to feel the sisterhood in that group.
However, there were still some roadblocks in my way. Running was still so hard for me. I participated in a couple of 5k runs in anticipation of the triathlon and I could feel the anxious frenzy of my body when I’d start to breathe heavily. I’d have to stop and walk during the race, and I was so discouraged. I was always sure I was going to have an asthma attack, even though I hadn’t had one in over 10 years. Then, we all decided to try swimming in the lake a few days before the race. Nine women with twelve children (including 4 babies) went down to the lake where the event would be held. We decided to go in two waves so that half of us could watch the kids while the other half swam, and then switch. I was in the second wave, and a few meters out into the lake, I panicked. The water was murky and black, and I couldn’t see my hands in front of me when I went under water. All of a sudden, I was a little girl again who was drowning in the Snake River. I was terrified, and I knew I was going under. Thankfully, we’d positioned one of the sons of the moms in our group in the lake with a kickboard, and I was able to float on the kickboard and kick my way back. I had never felt so discouraged, so disappointed in myself, so ready to quit. I cried all the way home – all that training for nothing!
After talking to my husband and my friends, who were understanding and encouraging, I resolved I was not going to let that lake get the best of me. I had worked too hard for too long to quit now. I realized that fear was getting in the way of my success. I had trained for 4 ½ months – I knew I was physically up to the task, but my fears of having an asthma attack and drowning in the lake were holding me back. That night I spent studying my scriptures, looking up every reference to fear. Here are some of the references I found:
D&C 38:30: “…if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.”
D&C 6:36: “Look to me in every thought. Doubt not, fear not.”
Moroni 8:16: “…I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.”
Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with me, be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
The scripture from Isaiah led me to one of my favorite hymns, “How Firm a Foundation.” This had always been the hymn that strengthened and calmed me during times of adversity. As I read the fourth verse, the words jumped out at me as they never had before:
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify thee to thy deepest distress.”
I realized that I was going through the deep waters literally as well as figuratively. With this race, I was going through the deep waters of my fears – fear of having an asthma attack on the run, fear of drowning on the swim, fear of failure. I also realized that I needed to face my fears to overcome them, and lean on the Lord. My husband gave me a blessing, I meditated on the scriptures I had read, and I went back out for another lake swim before the race. Verse 4 of “How Firm a Foundation” became my mantra as I swam. I had an image of the Lord’s mighty right hand coming up from the bottom of the lake to buoy me up.
The day of the race came, and I willed myself to be calm. I meditated. I prayed. I breathed deeply. I sang the words of the hymn over and over in my mind. My friends, my sisters, were all there with me, and I felt their strength. We prepared our bikes and headed down to the water. Our families were there to cheer us on. The day was overcast as the horn blew and we went into the water. Dark, choppy water and swimmers surrounded me as I chanted to myself, “when through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow…” Suddenly I was to the first marker, then the second, then in the home stretch. My mantra helped me relax and push my stroke forward, and then I was out of the water! As I ran to the transition area to pick up my bike, my heart was filled with gratitude. The Lord had held me up with His mighty right hand.
I completed the bike leg with one of my better biking times, and headed into the run. By now, the adrenalin (and I believe, the Spirit) was coursing through me and I was no longer worried about the run. I knew I had prepared. I knew I could run. And I did. I ran almost the entire course, only stopping to walk a little when I developed a stitch in my side. I crossed the finish line in a sprint with my arms in the air.
Even though I came in last out of my group of friends (but not last in the race!), I had done a huge thing – more than completing a physically demanding triathlon, I had overcome my fears – I had gone through those deep, dark, murky waters of fear and self-doubt with the Lord’s help. The rivers of my fear and sorrow did not overcome me, because He was with me every step of the way. It was an amazing spiritual and physical experience, and I can’t wait for the next one.
JESSICA MARTINEZ wrote:
I feel exactly the same way you all do. I am so happy we did this. Not only did I get the accomplishment of finishing a triathlon and some serious bragging rights out of it, but I feel like I've made some wonderful friends. I know you've all heard me whine and complain about Miami before so I'll spare you the same old rant and just say what a blessing it is to have such awesome friends. And speaking of triathlon on the brain, am I the only one who is already excited about the next one?
TRACY BOSCH wrote:
Wow,
I am so amazed at so many things in this race. How much easier it was, and yet harder too. How much faster we can go in the thick of competition. How much I appreciate you all and your encouragement and support. I would have had a much harder time with this and I am sure have gone a lot slower had I not had you all right along with me.
Thanks so much for being a great team!
In the words of Stefanie, WE ROCK!!!!!!!
Tracy
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