Thanks for the Inspiration

It's Wednesday. My post Iron man fatigue has been replaced with insomnia and more energy than I know what to do with. I don't think I slept a wink last night. Maybe it was reliving the Iron man experience with my triathlete friends at the club meeting.Maybe it was the can of Diet Pepsi I should not have consumed. Ultimately, I think I got to fired up and inspired by last nights tri club guest speaker challenged athlete Tracy Moore. The combination of alcohol, depression and a failed suicide resulted in a traumatic loss of leg. As she sobered up the people at the amputee clinic took note. They donated her a sport leg prosthetic and helped her get started doing triathlons. She's been triumphing over her tragedy since then. You think your battles are tough try getting through life with one leg. I can't do her story justice enough, but lets just say I'll let you know if she writes a book. I wonder if I can recruit her to be a member of Idropboys. She made a couple of jokes about how she "chicked" a few guys at a triathlon. If getting chicked by a girl on a pink bike is bad......getting chicked by a girl with one leg is a whole level of better.

I was scheduled to return to work this morning but due to low census I was asked to extend my "vacation" one more day by being on call. This is like hooky with permission or the equivalent of a snow day. I was assuming I would be tired from a night of insomnia and unsafe to take care of patients in the ICU. Not so I am A&O times 3 as we say in healthcare. I'm also raring to go. I think my mind is healing before my body so I will refrain from my beloved pink bike. I will focus on the assigned task my coach gave me of writing a race report. I am to encompass what happened at Ironman good and bad so I can know what to work on in preparation for IMAZ (his words ...the good and bad, not mine).

Before I can begin my race report I would like to "shout out" to Bruce and Cindy, Tim's parents. Thank you guys for sharing such an amazing experience with Tim and I. Thanks also for guiding Tim and I through our first Ironman. Special thanks for arranging the Madonna Buder visit. Bruce's pearls from previous experiences saved of a lot of "pain". Thanks Bruce for being our inspiration. From the beginning when I met Tim he talked about how his Dad did Ironman and the Death Ride and so forth. He's really proud of you and so am I. You are the real deal and if you are truely passing the Ironman torch I have a tough act to follow. (However retirements in the peri Ironman period are often not valid) I'm willing to carry the torch to IMAZ just to keep it burning. At Ralph's (California 70.3) I'm handing it back to you, the rightful owner. Perhaps on the your new bike "the Swiss Stallion" (currently featured/hostage at Moments Cycle Sport) you will gallop away into a Kona spot. If anyone deserves to race on that island it is you. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be sipping coffee from my Ironman mug right now if Tim and I didn't have you as an example. BTW: Age graded ...you kicked our butts.

Thank you Cindy. Cindy is probably the most athletically talented of all of us. She's a former national swimmer and runner of a 1h 30min Half marathon. Cindy's knees keep her sidelined from running ( ....and no nay sayers, she didn't wear them out running) and sidelined from a non relay triathlon. It's good that she is adept at managing second graders. Spending a weekend with three nervous and jittery athletes is probably like refocusing a class of third graders. Cindy had a huge hand in my finish. Saturday evening the four of us were walking around the down town CDA. We were engrossed in a conversation of race day hopes and wished. I was quoting coach Mike Plumb who said I could run nine minute miles. That wouldn't be too hard, 9 minute miles are easy:) Bruce was referencing his coach, Dave Scott, who wanted him to take in 1000 calories on the run and thought Bruce should finish in 10:30. Tim said he just wanted to go one minute faster than his dad. Cindy interjected and it redirected us or at least me. She said this very clearly and with the emphasis on will. Above all you will finish. Cindy had the wisdom to know that in a race of that duration anything can happen and things rarely unfold the way you expect. I fell from all three of the goal splits I set (or had set for me). I didn't allow myself to get discouraged I simply repeated to myself Above all you WILL finish. If my goal splits weren't saved in an e-mail from my coach I'm sure they would be long forgotten. The finish of Ironman will be forever in my heart. Thank you also for rising at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning and cheering until 7 p.m. At which point you helped sherpa 3 sodium depleted athletes through the fourth leg of a triathlete: the smelly gear pickup. Thank you for helping me find my three top mantras of the day.

Above all you will finish.....with the emphasis on WILL

You look fabulous. This was sort of my fusion of "Sex in The City" meets Cherie Gruenfield's book "Become a Ironman" fusion. Cheri mentioned you should try to look good. It translates to good form which translates to speed. I made it my goal to look and be fabulous. It's a positive way of thinking. I'm not full of myself I just realize life is too short and too fun to spend it self deprecating. Each time I passed Cindy she yelled "Jen you look fabulous" This would make me smile and giggle. I would give her hammed up wave like I was Miss America or something. I would also yell this to fellow female San Diegans Stacey Dietrich and Julie Dunkle as we passed. They did look fabulous and it gave me glee to say it out loud.

Ice cream soda, cherry on top, I'm biking to 100 and I'm not going to stop. I would exchange the word biking for swimming or running when doing those events. This was a mantra Cindy was using in her children's story. It's actually is a line the third grade girls chanted when they jump rope. Cindy was reading the story aloud to Tim and I for opinions and we loved it. A light bulb clicked, that might just be the mantra that pops into my head for Ironman. We went for a short run just after that and Tim, Bruce, and I all started chanting the mantra. I was a great way to stay in a happy head. I believe if you get down you will slow down. I hope I haven't violated copy wrights by sharing it.