Journey to IRONMAN: Sole Mates

"Running day in and day out with somebody is the quickest way to forge a friendship.  

For a start you're talking together for an hour or two each time.  

You see each other at your rawest, with no makeup or fancy clothes, just Lycra, 

sweat and sometimes tears.  There is no facade to hide behind.  

You're running, it hurts and by the end of it you're feeling fairly broken and laid out bare.  

How can you not become best friends after that?" 

~ Chrissie Wellington (IRONMAN World Champion)

I love this quote.  Over the past couple of months I have been reading inspirational IRONMAN books.  The woman who wrote that little ditty is a 4 time IRONMAN World Champion and not a newbie to the world of endurance.  

It made me so thankful for the many running friends that I have made over the past few years.  Every place that we have lived has brought with it some powerful friendships.  The crucible of training for a marathon,  however,  has forged 2 of the most lasting, best friendships and it is these women whom this blog is about.

Grace Jessup is my running sister from North Carolina.  The miles that Grace and I have run are pretty impressive.  While we became fast friends outside of the road, it was truly the hours spent running and training for a marathon that solidified that authentic, raw, honest relationship.  We truly saw each other at our worst....and best.  She now lives far away from me and the last time I ran with her was nearly 8 months ago, but those years of running day in and day out forged this lasting bond between the two of us.  She did her first marathon with me.  She will always be my sole mate.

Sarah Gallegos is a friend truly concreted through the miles of running.  Sarah is a high school friend of mine.  I reconnected with her once we moved back to Denver.  Over the past 3 years I have seen us both discover our own power and strength.  We have both had baby #2, naturally, and have discovered what its like to run with 4 children.  Our friendship has been forged not only in the day in and day out of running, but on the battlefield of motherhood and marriage. Sometimes its pretty, sometimes its not.  Tears, frustration are sometimes never far.....and yet, we always run.  In November she will conquer her first marathon.  I am so glad I get to once again be a part of something so big for a friend.  She is another of those lasting sole mates.

Today I have been hit with the reality that IRONMAN is not just about the destination, but the journey.  And with such a long journey ahead of me, there is no doubt that I will need the support of friends who will share in this crazy goal I have set for myself. I am excited to meet those soles....

but today I just want to stop and be grateful for the friendships above and the miles that forged them.

Smile

Boy, last week was a doozy.  It all started a week and a half ago when Evie came down with hand foot and mouth disease.  Poor Baby!  Just the sound of it sounds yucky.  Thankfully it was a relatively mild case of it, but the poor dear ran a fever and then broke out in blisters on her face, hands and legs.  I felt so bad for her.  Boy, that virus is NASTY.

She handled all of it with grace and I was so proud of her. Lily seemed to dodge the sickness, but has had a bad case of attitude lately.  Holy Bananas!  The week really got bad when poor Bob woke up Monday morning after having a nasty night of fevers.  He felt horrible.  The days progressed to really bad when the poor guy could hardly eat his throat was so sore.  While we never had an "official" diagnosis, I have no doubt that he got Evie's virus.  The poor guy was so sick.

When Evie started showing signs, I started packing in the echinacea, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, refusing kisses and squirting hand sanitizer after every encounter.  I also spent SEVERAL days in the pool hoping that a full body chlorine wash would help defend me against the germs.  I was on high alert.  Poor Bob was basically quarantined with no kissing and very little closeness from his wife.  I felt bad, but I did not want to get sick.  He felt wretched!

I managed to survive the week, but my body was fighting.  Exhaustion and feeling "under the weather" was a constant companion.  It was quite a week.

On Thursday I dropped Lily at school and took little Evie to the park.  She had so much fun.  Her smiles were just infectious (in a good way) and I found myself breathing a sigh of relief.  There are times in this life, weeks of sickness and days of hardship that sometimes threaten to steal my joy. Sometimes life is just hard........then my kids smile.  Its amazing what those faces can do.  

15 Months

My wee little baby girl is 15 months today.  The little peanut is not feeling on top of her game today and has been super snuggly all day.  She is so precious.  I don't want her to grow up today.  Couldn't she just stay this little for at least a year? I know, wishful thinking.  Every day I am hit with the reality that she is moving farther and farther away from me and into her own place in this world.  She is beginning to find her way.

Evie LOVES her Daddy right now.  She simply lights up when she sees him and begs for "Uppies" and cuddles.  She gives awesome kisses and tells you assertively when her kisses are not being handed out.  She snuggles and is just beginning to enjoy stories.  She is also loving riding the horses up at Memaws house much to Memaw's delight.  Memaw is also one of those favorite of peoples.  She just loves her "Momum."  We still have yet to get Memaw out.

Evie is a daredevil and has very little self preservation reflexes in her little body.  The park is the most wonderful thing and she has gone down head first down several of the slides only to scare me half silly, jump up off of the ground and smile at her bravery.  Goodness.....I can't keep my eyes off of her!  She also loves the stairs and loves to try to sneak up them when I am occupied elsewhere.  What a goober.

Much like her sister Lily, the Bee is also loving the water these days and if we are not in the pool outside we try to spend some time at the rec center.  Swimming lessons are surely in her future.

This little lady has taken off walking and is desperately trying to make her legs go fast enough to keep up with her sister.  She is so determined to be Lily's shadow, but speed is not her friend.....yet.  She is such a strong little girl and very tough.  There is not a lot that gets to her and she will try anything once, even if it results in a face plant of some kind.

Since Lily is in school 4 mornings a week, Evie and I have a lot of time together which I LOVE.  This little girl is just so special to me and such a doll baby.  Yes, she screams and often.  She asserts her will and throws tantrums.  She should be, she's a kid, but man I love my time with her.  She is so engaged with the world around her and understands so much even though she has few words.  It is so much fun to be able to ask her a question and have her respond to it with her whole body.  The other day she woke up fussy from nap time.  I brought her downstairs, sat on the couch and then asked if she wanted to go and say hi to Daddy.  Oh her whole body started smiling and she crawled down and beelined straight for Daddy's office.  She knows.

My once teeny tiny baby is growing up and is such a big little girl these days.  She is so much hope, so much joy and so much promise.  Of course there is a little mischief thrown in there too.......

But I wouldn't want it any other way!

Journey to IRONMAN: Littlefoot Triathlon

I am just going to say it, I LOVE this new sport of triathlon.  It really is so much fun and so very challenging.  A month ago after finishing the Tri for the Cure, I barely waited 4 hours before signing Bob and I up for the Littlefoot Triathlon a month later.  Unfortunately, I have been dealing with this IT band pain and the week leading up to the TRI I was all butterflies and nerves.  The pain has been slowly improving, but I knew I would have to be tender with the race and pay attention to my body.

Well, the morning of the race showed up and we arose to a brisk 49 degrees.  Oy.  Normally speaking August is a hot month and the water temps are in the low 70s.  Well, this August has been different and the water temperature was a shiver inducing 64 on Saturday AM.  Man was it cold and neither Bob nor I have wetsuits (a problem that WILL be rectified before Half IRONMAN next June!).  I still laugh that we actually got into that water, but we did.

Bob's group began their half mile trek right at 7:05 and I started mine about 20 minutes behind him.  Just like the first TRI, the first 100 yards were just a mental fight against the cold.  The temperature of that water literally sucks the air out of you and you have to fight to breathe and exert yourself swimming.  It is so challenging and only a wee bit scary.

I LOVED the swim.  I have been training so very hard to get more comfortable in the water and am beginning to love that event of the TRI. I felt good and came in 8th of about 30 women in my wave.  Bam.

The bike was a fantastic course and one I really enjoyed.  It was hilly though and required quite a bit of exertion.    I loved my aero bars and felt so confident cruising down the road.  I definitely was passed by the serious racers, but held my own quite well.  Bob went out hard and made up a lot of his lost time in the swim on his bike.

With my IT band, I was most concerned about the run portion (which was new....running is my thing!).  I went out easy and decided not to push it.  I was feeling it, but it wasn't excruciating and I knew I wasn't damaging anything.  The run was nice, but I was definitely glad when it was done.  Still not completely back.

Bob finished well and felt great and I pulled into the finish about 15 minutes later at a great 1:20 time.  Over 10 minutes faster than my first TRI.  Feeling antsy to go further, but grateful that my leg was done.  

My finishing picture wasn't as victorious as the first TRI, but I put it in to remind myself that you can't always have an awesome, perfect and strong race.  It was good, but I definitely have some rehab work to do on my leg.

The Littlefoot Triathlon was a fantastic end of season race and I must now put TRI racing on the back burner, after all.....snow is coming.  Looking forward to many more of these races with the hubby.  Can't wait until we have our IRONMAN medals hanging next to each other!

Playmate

Its happening, my girls are slowly becoming friends.  Evie is just mesmerized with her Big Sister and cannot contain her joy when she sees her.  Some days when we drop Lily off for school, Evie looks over my shoulder with such longing, wondering where her "Diddy" went.  It is truly a special thing for this Momma.

Lily is still heads and tails above Evie, but so often during the day I will see them playing fort or looking at books together.  They love each other and their budding little friendship is fun to watch.

The other day we went outside and played in our dry little pool.  We were out there for over an hour playing together and the girls loved every minute.  They would each take turns sliding down the slide.  Lily barely fits on the slide and Evie was determined to go down head first.  Such a little Dare Devil.

I sat there just happy.  Its so wonderful to see them playing together and to take part in their simple contentedness with life.  It is beautiful.

Sweet Girls, I pray that you will continue to be best of friends.  You are both so special and have so much fun together.  Play often kiddos.  I love you both bunches.

Journey to IRONMAN: IT Troubles

Well, I've done it, my first injury.  It's not horrible, but is not awesome either.  I didn't break anything or strain anything, it is a classic injury of overuse and I am sure is one of the many I will face over my journey to IRONMAN.

It happened about four weeks ago.  I ran 19 miles on a Monday and then, tired as I was, met my friend Sarah the following day for another 8 mile run.  I was doing great until about mile 6 of the run when all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in the outside of my right knee.  I babied it and finished the run, but I was most definitely hurting at the end.  If you have ever had IT band troubles you know how sharp the knee and hip pain can be.

 Following that run, every time I took a step, it felt like someone was hammering a poker in my knee (probably an exaggeration, but its a close as I can get).  So I took 4 days off of running.  I continued to swim and cycle because neither of those hurt.  I ran a 3 mile run with very minimal pain and considered myself on the mend.

Last Saturday I did another 19 with my buddy and right at about mile 14 the pain started again.  I was careful and cautious about how I landed, but it hurt and of course, I had to finish the run.  After that, the pain was awful when I ran.  3 days following the distance, I want for a 2 mile run and couldn't even run it all the pain was so stabbing.  So Frustrating.

I decided that rest alone was clearly not going to help me get back to distance.  I have taken it upon myself to visit a chiropractor and a massage therapist for some intensive work and then went out and bought myself a little thing called "The Stick."  We have a foam roller,  which is basically a glorious muscle torture and stretching device, but the stick is a new form of work.  The description of this item is "Its a toothbrush for your muscles."  It hurts SO good.

I have been on constant stick, roller and ice work for the past week.  Thankfully, I am slowly improving, but it is slow.....and frustrating.  I am determined to rehab correctly though because I have marathons and IRONMAN's to do!

Through this little setback I am learning some valuable lessons though.  My dear running friend Sarah said it best, "Bethany, you can't demand so much out of your body without giving back to it occasionally!"

This pursuit demands much and I have got my first taste of the cost of such demands.  IRONMAN is as much about giving to your body as it is taking from it.  Well.....lesson learned.

The Shoe Fits Perfectly

Lily Grace is our resident princess these days.  Oh she simply loves all things magical and princessy.  Yes, its a word.    

She adores dresses and although she has several drawers full of shorts, shirts and pants, all this lovely lady wants to wear is anything that twirls.  Lately she has taken to having a blanket tied around her neck for a cape.  She runs through the house and along the sidewalk singing at the top of her lungs "Let it Go, Let it Go!"  

This past week Lily desperately needed new school shoes.  She has grown out of all of them.  So I headed to Target to get some sensible shoes for school.  Of course, I picked up Lily and all but 1 pair (I bought  4) fit her.  So I had to take her to the store.  We were not there but 30 seconds when Lily comes around the corner with Cinderella "glass slippers" on her feet.  Who cares that they were attached by a rubber band and she was hobbling down the aisle, she had found princess shoes.  No matter how I reasoned that they would not make good play shoes she was euphoric in her joy.  Oh dear, those are NOT sensible shoes.  "But Mom, they fit PERFECTLY!"  Lily ended up splitting the cost of the shoes with Me.  She was elated and only too quick to pay me her papers out of her piggy bank.  (oh what will happen when those run out!)

I love this little girl.  All of her and her princessy ways.  She has so much joy and such a big imagination.  She is beautiful and simply so much fun.