Journey to IRONMAN: My Pedigree Part 2

Running continued to be a staple for me, but I could not break that 4 mile barrier.  How could anyone run more than that?  More importantly was WHY?

I graduated top of my class, head cheerleader and 20 pounds lighter and fitter than when I started and headed to CSU where I had made the All-girl Cheerleading squad.  Collegiate level cheering was a whole new ballgame.  2 a day practices, running, weight lifting, size expectations.  Man, I had to step up my game.  Thankfully running was now a lifestyle for me and I quickly learned how to break that 4 mile window.  I slowly conquered  the 6 mile distance and can remember running the Boulder, Boulder 10k.  6 miles was far!

Then I met Bob and his Momma and quickly started to wonder if I could ever do something as big as a half marathon.  How do people just run and run and run.....for 13.1 miles?  It seemed impossible.  The January after Bob proposed in 2003, however, I was convinced  to tackle it.  The Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Phoenix was the destination and was to be the first race I had ever done with Bob.  Darcie, Bob's sister, and I ran it together and after months of training and wondering we came across the finish line at 2:07.  I was TOAST.  I remember feeling like I could barely make it across the line.  I lost a toe nail, everything hurt.  That was hard.

I was not one of those runners that just fell in love with racing and distance.  In fact, following that race I took somewhat of a running hiatus.  That Half Marathon was hard.  Ironically in all of this I sat down one day and wrote a bucket list for life goals.  On it were things like read the whole bible, have a baby and visit Italy.  The last  item I put on it was "run a marathon."  I remember writing that down and thinking "its a good thing I have my whole life because there is a good chance that will never happen. I barely finished half that distance, how in the world can I run 26.2?"

Now I must digress a bit here and talk about the other events in the tri.  Surely some of you are thinking, well, wasn't cycling and swimming part of your life?  Nope.  Yes, I knew how to ride bike, and yes, I knew how to swim, but I was neither a cyclist nor a swimmer.  I had a 10 speed mountain bike as a kid but I didn't ride it for more than a few minutes.  The one time I remember my cousins and I riding our bikes home from our mail boxes (3 miles away), I fell and broke my arm.  No, cycling was not my thing.  After that tumble as a young teenager, I did not ride a bike.  In fact, I have not owned a bicycle for over 15 years!  I have ridden a road bike for roughly 8 months, and have never ridden an actual TRI bike.

As for swimming, I loved to swim as a kid and my cousins and I loved to swim in our freezing cold pond, but water has always been a fearful place for me.  I am not comfortable in water and have been convinced for several years that there is a water monster that eats unsuspecting swimmers.  Seriously, for as long as I can remember, the mere act of getting in water whether a pool, ocean, lake or pond would instantly make my heart race and my imagination run wild.  That monster.....its in there.

So you see.....nothing in my pedigree suggests that I would ever want to tackle one of the hardest endurance events one can do.  I'm not magic or genetically engineered for this.  I don't have a legacy of this kind of racing.  Its not "in my blood." I truly am a normal woman who believes without doubt that she can do extraordinary things.

My desire to become IRONMAN is fraught with "what ifs" and "can I reallys."  I am constantly looking at this event and dealing with real human fear....and doubt.  Its not easy.....I wasn't born for this.

I just know I can.  The greatest achievements in life are sometimes the result of choosing to believe you can even when everything else suggests you really can't.  My journey to IRONMAN is truly that.....a journey, not a destination. Why can't a once overweight "that's impossible," non swimmer, non cyclist complete the toughest Triathlon race distance?  Every day is a choice to believe I can.........


and I WILL.