Tri Again

Shelly had so much fun with her first triathlon in May that she decided to try again in September. We didn't train quite as much the second time around, but she spent so much time in the water all summer, her swimming definitely improved. And with the new gear (speedy green bike), she would have to be faster, right? That heavy pink bike from May was history, now she has a light road bike with gears and she's done some practicing with finding the best gear for every situation.

Cue the Big Day!

We recruited a couple of cousins to join the cheering squad, and a friend of Archer's decided to try out the tri as well. Here's the gang before the race.

We knew what to expect. We're practically experts this time around. She even has a tri kit. Here we go!

Swim. They call the names, Shelly goes to the end of her lane, they blow the horn and they're off! I stood at the end of her lane cheering her on. The rest of our crew was in the bleachers up above and all was going wonderfully.

Her swim was 2:47 faster this time around (yay for swimming!). She finished up, went out for her bike and I went out to get ready also. She had asked me to join her for the bike but planned to run alone. She was doing well, handling the hills better than last time (thanks bike!) and we were cruising along. Then we got to the turnaround. And that's when everything changed.

Suddenly the wind picked up and I thought, the next two miles are going to be tough... The leaves were whipping across the road and hitting our legs as we pushed into the wind. I tried to shout encouragement to Shelly, in front of me, but she couldn't hear anything. This is going to be a long two miles, I kept thinking. It was hard. Then the rain. Torrential. Pouring out of the sky and across the road, it was being blown horizontal so that it was hitting our legs and arms and faces, stinging with every drop. It felt like hail, it felt like being pricked with pins with every raindrop. I wondered if this was what a hurricane felt like. We couldn't see in front of us and all we could do was keep pedaling, stay on the road and try to keep moving forward. The road where there had been no traffic was suddenly busy with vans and trucks moving slowly through the rain to try to find their children and pull them in out of the storm. I shouted as loud as I could to Shelly, keep your head down and keep pedaling! Keep your head down and just keep going!! "I'm trying" she screamed back at me. We turned down a couple of offers for rides, but then the lightening and thunder seemed as if it were right over our heads and all around us. We couldn't hear unless we yelled, we couldn't see anything, I heard what I thought sounded like crying. This was not a fun adventure anymore.

Finally, with less than a half mile to go until we were back to the campus and safety, a kind stranger invited us into her van and we accepted the ride. We were drenched. She took Shelly and our bikes back to the building and I tried to track down David. I didn't have my phone with me and it seemed like it took forever but eventually we all ended up back where we had started, inside at the pool. I found Shelly, the brothers and cousins, and surprise! Grandma and Grandpa had shown up sometime while Shelly and I were out on our bikes.

Once we knew that we had everyone, and David was back with the van (he had gone out looking for us), we were able to say all of our hellos and goodbyes. There were so many stories from such a brief time, stories of where everyone was when the storm descended on us and who got more wet than whom and whatever happened to our bikes? Wow.

We gathered all our stuff. Shelly's towel that had been outside in Transition and David said there was a river running through the area when he picked everything up. There was nothing dry. Time to go home. Guess what? As we gathered all the equipment and crew, the sun had come out. Beautiful sunny weather, just in time for us to pack everything up.

The bike ride was cut short and the run didn't happen at all. Disappointing. But the Best Tri Adventure Ever! Shelly's misery over the Hurricane Bike Ride became laughter and storytelling on the way home.

So, are we going to try the tri again next year?



Early Bird Tri - May 2016      September 2016
   Swim                 9:00               6:13
   T1                      4:07               3:13
   Bike                   36:39
   T2                      1:05
   Run                   18:25

Did you hear about...

Did you hear about my daughter, the toughest, bravest girl I know? Did you hear? If you know us, you know Shelly has just achieved an incredible feat. Triathlon. Wow.

Shelly trained VERY hard, she spent so much time in the pool over the last couple of months, I can't even tell you how many hours we were in the water. I think she might have started to change her mind about this whole thing? Probably not. I don't know. I DO know that MANY times she would have rather spent her time doing something other than driving to another high school Open Swim day. Saturday afternoons. Wednesday nights. Lifeguards asking her to take a test and me talking our way out of it. We swam in the shallow end, we tried to avoid the splashers. She hates goggles and won't put her face in the water but we prevailed. Another lap. Another lap. Another lap.

One night near the end of the training she called me into her bedroom. As she lay there, exhausted from yet another evening swim where I made her go twice as far as she wanted to - she said to me, "Mom, can I ask you a question?" Sure, anything. "When you were training for your half marathon to run 13 miles, did you ever have to run 20 miles?" No, I din't have to do that.

(And I'm silently thinking, where is this going? And I know exactly where its going, and this is a Mom Moment when you just pretend like you're an expert except you actually know NOTHING about what you're talking about.)

No, when I was training for a half marathon, I never ran more than the race distance while I was in training. "Then why do I have to do 10 laps to practice, when the event will only be FOUR?" Cue my Expert Mom speech about getting comfortable in the water and building endurance. Blah blah....

We pushed through, we planned and packed. Sunday morning we drove out to Whitewater and arrived early, in time to have lunch, tour the town and get a prime parking spot. We moved our bikes to the transition area. And waited. We waited for about a million years for the meeting. While we waited, our family (Grandma and Grandpa brought the boys!) and friend (Mary P!!! what!!! thanks for surprising us!) showed up. It started getting crowded with kids of all ages, Shelly was one of the youngest but there were racers all the way up to 17 years old. Some of them looked casual and new like us, while others were pros. Kids that looked like they were 10 or 12 but had the team jerseys, the professional tri-suits, the expensive looking gear. I felt intimidated. Shelly seemed fine.

The meeting finally started, everything was explained, and before I even knew what was happening they were calling out names for the first wave and Shelly was the second name they called! Everything's a blur! Go! She lines up a the end of her lane with three other girls, they creep into the water, the whistle blows and she's GOING!! From where we sat, waaaaayyyy up in the balcony bleachers, she looked too small. She looked like the smallest little thing down in that big pool, crowded into a lane with three other swimmers who seemed faster and stronger than her. But she went. She would not put her face in the water but she WOULD. NOT. STOP. She didn't stop to rest at the ends like I thought she would. When another swimmer doing the backstroke ran into Shelly, she slowed a bit but she wouldn't stop. When I was sitting in those bleachers screaming so she'd hear me calling to her, and I was up there thinking she started out too fast and she'd be too tired.... she just wouldn't stop.

All that time, the crowd was cheering for all those children in the pool, but as they climbed out one by one the crowd gradually grew a little quiter. But then. Shelly was the only one left. And OH MY GOODNESS you should have heard them. EVERYONE was cheering for her! EVERYONE was clapping and cheering for my darling beautiful strong Shelly. And she finished her four laps, climbed out to applause and cheers and walked out the door like a pro.

Ok, now GO!!! I raced down the steps, ran outside to my bike and met up with Shelly. She had found her things, dried off, put on her helmet and clothes and off we go for the four mile bike ride. I was allowed to ride and run with her, so we were together from then on. There were hills. There was wind. Other kids out on the road as they finished their swim and hopped on their bikes. We did our best. Shelly kept asking how much farther till we could turn around. I just kept trying to encourage her. And what the heck was I doing. I'm coaching her on how to do a triathlon when I've never done one? I've read a lot about them. I want to do one myself this summer. But who am I to say how she should ride her bike? No time for that. She was cold and thirsty and hating the hills. Stay positive, Mom, keep her going. (Am I pushing her too hard? Is this all a mistake and she'll never try anything new again?) Keep going.

Our support team was there for the beginning and end of the bike ride, ready to cheer Shelly on through the next transition. We parked the bikes and I followed her out to the course for the run. This is where the boys joined us and I thought they'd drop off after a little while but they stuck it out. Eli even managed to almost keep up with us. Shelly didn't need a lot from me at this point, other than keeping the boys out of her way. One mile. Around the soccer field. She was tired and I know she was still cold, that wind and the wet hair on her neck wasn't helping anything. But she would not give up. And then, there's the finish, we're almost there, she picked up her pace and as we got closer she was going faster and they call out her number as they see her coming, and she's DONE! She crossed the finish line, SHE FINISHED!

My heart melted in that moment. She looked exhausted. But she had decided to try something new, she worked hard to be ready, and then she did NOT. GIVE. UP. She finished it.

So Shelly, how do you feel? "Tired. Wet. Happy. And proud." And that sums it up very nicely.

Busy Busy!

We started out with some triathlon training, followed by a nap on the way home, and dinner out to refuel.

This was Shelly's last day of swimming training. We've been swimming twice a week for the last month. While everyone else plays around, we swim laps. "Was that 8 or 9 laps? 9? No, I think only 8. No I won't compromise, we're doing 10 today!" Every new place we swam had its own little hiccups. We couldn't find the locker rooms, restrooms, an open locker, an empty lane to swim in. After a month of that, we're experts. (Except, apparently even the EXPERTS can forget to bring their towels to the pool. Cue the drying off with a T-shirt...)

And we both know - she's GOT this thing. We'll gather up our equipment, load up the bikes and head out to Whitewater next Sunday for Shelly's grand adventure in the Tri. I am SO proud of her!