ironSarah

July has flown by so fast. After spending a week at camp earlier in the month I had gotten back into training and was feeling good about my upcoming event, then still 5 weeks away. On Thursday, July 21, I got an email saying that the event I was registered for had been canceled due to lack of participants. Even with all the times throughout the year when I have thought something like, "i shouldn't really have signed up for THAT!" the only emotions I felt upon the news of the cancellation were frustration, sadness, and kind of betrayal that this thing i had been working towards and planning for so long was leaving me stranded.

So I began searching for a different event to sign up for, but nothing was right. It was either the wrong distance race, or too far from louisville, or had cut-off times that i would never be able to meet, or was a different weekend that I really didn't want. I was so discouraged. After several hours of searching, I resigned myself to doing a shorter race that day in August. Ultimately I knew that would be better anyways, as it would be closer to louisville than my original event and I really had been feeling stressed with all the training I was doing. So doing a shorter one would be good.

So I went to bed with that decision made, but I was still discouraged. I felt like I had done all that training for a long course and would never really accomplish it. But there was no right event to sign up for, nothing I could do... until I woke up (before my alarm that Friday morning) with an idea. have my own triathlon.

I pitched the idea to my parents on Friday morning and asked if they would help. I had 3 jobs for them to do: 1) be my official timer and record times for each segment of the race 2) count my laps in the pool 3) station themselves at certain points along the route to pass out water/gatorade/energy bars/etc. and by the way, i wanted to do this the following day! (after looking at the calendar and figuring out dates that would or wouldn't work).

They were a little hesitant, mostly because they were worried about how hot it was outside (heat index in the hundreds), but they agreed that this was probably the best solution. So we talked about logistics and the course I wanted to take.

SWIM! (1.2 miles)

the next day (Saturday) i picked my parents up at 6:45 am and we headed to the gym where I have done my training and where I would swim the 1.2 miles (88 lengths of the gym pool). Because of rules at the gym, my parents had to stay outside the pool area and could only watch through the window, so although they were counting laps they couldn't tell me when i was done. I had kind of been counting, but by the time I looked at them to find out it was ok to stop I had done an extra lap. My dad was really impressed with the steady rhythm I was keeping. My first 10 laps were slightly faster, but after that each set of 10 were exactly the same time. My first transition time was longer that it would have been in a sanctioned event for two reasons: 1) since there was a locker room at the gym i went ahead and changed out of my wet stuff before starting the bike 2) since my bike was parked outside I didn't feel like I could leave on it my bag of stuff and water bottles, so I had to spend extra time getting my bike ready before actually taking off.

BIKE! (56 miles)

I took off on my bike straight down US 60 (shelbyville road) from Louisville to Shelbyville and a little past shelbyville before turning around. I met my parents at a gas station about 30 miles in to refill the water bottles on my bike. I felt really good on the bike until about mile 40 or so, then I felt like I started to drag some. And I had miscalculated a little, so I actually passed my ending point with a couple miles left to go... those were the longest couple miles of the whole trip. My second transition went fairly smoothly, although a little weird because my mom had laid out my stuff so I wasn't exactly sure where everything i wanted was.

(at the bike pit-stop in Shelbyville)

RUN! (13.1 miles) or walk, in my case.

I felt good heading into the half marathon, but it was super hot, so I basically just walked the whole way. My parents were stationed at a park and I had mapped out a loop where i would pass the park after 3 miles and then 1 mile the other direction, so I was passing that point regularly. My mom surprised me by contacting a bunch of friends to come out and cheer me on, so every time I passed the park i looked forward to seeing who was there. I feel like I was pretty consistent until mile 10, then each step started to seem like work. but I kept going, and even ran the last little bit breaking through the toilet paper finish line that was being held up.

(some of the people that came out enjoying snacks in the shade waiting for me to come around again)

(toilet paper finish line)

It was such an amazing feeling to have accomplished something I had been working towards for almost a full year. I was so encouraged to have the support of so many people even on such short notice. I'm really thankful it worked out this way.

My total time from start to finish was 9 hrs 38 min. My goal was 9 hrs, but with the longer transition time and excessive heat, I was pleased with this.

(i exercised hard for over 9 hrs and all I got to show for it was two bumper stickers :-)

p.s. i titled this post ironSarah because that's what my mom had written on a poster that everyone used as they cheered me on.