It's been a while
since my last race and I've gone quite a while without writing a blog.
I have many reasons for that, but I will save them until last. First, I
will try to cover the final 9 days of my 2015 season as quickly as
possible, because a lot happened!
Boyne City Triathlon
First
I headed up north to race my favorite destination race: the Boyne City
Triathlon! This race boasts a great course, delicious (and free!) food
from food trucks post race and a very great purpose. This event helps
to raise thousands of dollars for neurological disease research, such as
Alzheimer's or ALS. The race director is also a really, really great
guy! You should consider adding this one to your 2016 race calendar!
The race will take place the Sunday before Labor Day. As far as my race
goes, the weather was crazy hot for this late in the year. I had a
strong swim, but I'm pretty sure the swim was a bit long because
everyone had long swims! I pushed hard on the bike and didn't get
passed by any guys, so I felt I must be having a strong race, since I
had been passed by a few guys the previous year. I had to ignore my
overall time because I knew it would be thrown off by the swim length.
Then I hit the run and slammed into a wall of heat. I felt like I was
running in an oven! Well, I used much more vulgar terms than "oven" in
my head while running. I was glad I had decided to change things up and
wore a swim suit instead of my usual uniform, which has a full back,
goes down almost to my knees and has a LOT of black. Suffice it to say,
it's a warm uniform! I struggled through the two loop run and my dad
found me toward the end (he raced the sprint and killed it for 2nd in
his age group!) and ran with me to encourage me to finish strong!
Usually I'm the one pushing him to finish strong when he's feeling close
to death, so I think he was a little smug about returning the favor. I
managed a pretty convincing smile for the camera and went straight down
to Lake Charlevoix to try to cool down! I must have stayed in that
water for half an hour, it was that hot!
Swimming the Straits of Mackinaw
There
are so many things to say about this swim. It was amazing, but there
were times when I felt more scared than I have ever felt in open water.
Granted, being in the middle of the Straits gives a new definition to
the term "open water." It was difficult, but exhilarating. By the end,
my arms were so tired that I couldn't get my wetsuit off and could only
flop my arms around uselessly until my dad graciously yanked my suit
off. We started late due to a boat captain arriving late... which is
where most of the trouble stemmed from. If we had started on time,
instead of 1 hour and 15 minutes late, then we could have had almost 2
hours of calm water. The first hour almost seemed easy because the
water was pretty flat for the Straits! But then the waves kicked up to
about 5 feet and I was not very pleased about the tardiness of a certain
boat captain. It was like being in an endless water treadmill from...
umm... well, more vulgar language in my head. But, I accomplished a
pretty incredible goal that I had set for myself. Even better, I was
able to accomplish this goal with my husband! A huge thank you to
everyone who helped my husband and I raise money for this event,
especially the Oak Park YMCA Triathlon Team. You guys are awesome!!
And also a big thank you to Tarra, she is a fundraising master and
helped us out with many great ideas. An incredible amount of money was
raised for Habitat for Humanity, somewhere well over $400,000! Will I
do it again? If you had asked me when I finished, I would have told you
"NO!" But I gave that same answer when I finished my first triathlon
and my dad asked me if I would do another one. You all know how that
story went.
Reeds Lake Triathlon
I couldn't
believe I was traveling for yet another race. At this point in the
season, my body and mind get very tired and fatigued. Now add on top of
that a race 6 days ago in 90 degree weather and 95% humidity PLUS
swimming the Straits and I was one tired girl! Luckily I was able to
stay with my best tri buddy, Abby, and my other partner in crime, Todd
Buckingham, the night before the race and they gave me a
motivational boost! The morning rolled around earlier than I would have
liked, as it always does for Reeds, which has an early start time. I
felt like I was going through the motions to get ready, so plugged in to
my best pump up music, which did the trick! My swim started out
strong, but on the way back I went completely off course (too far to the
left). I panicked, imaging many women taking a straight line to the
swim out and sprinted the remainder of the swim to make up for lost
time. I was told there was one woman ahead of me. Okay, not too bad. I
hit the bike and went as fast as I could possibly go, looking for
fish! That's a term I use in my head when I get on the bike, I tell
myself it's time to go fishing and catch all those fast swimmers! As I
was finishing up my 2nd loop, I still hadn't seen the woman ahead of
me and I was feeling disheartened. I knew my legs weren't ready to run
my best, but as I came through on the lap, the announcer said I was the
first woman. Ummm, what? Apparently I had passed her and completely
missed her, not really that surprising since it was hard to tell who was
who with duathletes and multiple laps. I pulled my pace back a touch
for the final lap, but not too much because I wasn't sure where she was
and, yeah, that whole running thing. My run wasn't pretty, I'll just
say that. But it was enough to finish 1st overall at Reeds for the
first time, with the little star note that Abby Geurink wasn't racing
;) It was fun to top the podium with Todd! But we still had one more
race to do.
Come Clean Duathlon
Back to
the Lansing area and this time Abby came with me and stayed at my
house! We went tailgating for a little while because that's what all
responsible triathletes do the afternoon after a race when they have
another race in the morning right? Sure... But we didn't stay out very
late and went back home in plenty of time to grab some dinner and watch
the game. Well, the first half anyway. Because morning, once again,
rolled around cold and early! I decided to go with another uniform
change and wore my old Michigan State tri uniform to celebrate MSU
beating Oregon! I went through my warm up and begged my legs to please
work. Duathlons always make me nervous, so much running! Why?! I
managed to keep Abby in view for the first run and felt I was in a good
spot. I took off on the bike, hoping to put enough distance between
myself and the other women so I wouldn't be caught on the run. It was
one of those days where the wind seemed to blowing in my face, no matter
what direction I was headed, but I still had a strong bike. I was
feeling tired after the bike, but miraculously my legs finally listened
and I felt stronger with each mile. I also had a great rabbit, Mike, to
follow! He was very helpful and I just focused on his back and keeping
up with him. Then, before I knew it, there was the finish line! The
2015 season ended with another overall win and, not far behind, Abby
came in soon after! It was awesome to see so much Oakie Blue and
Playmakers Red, felt like home!
Okay, there are my 9 crazy
days. Now, to the moment you have all really been waiting for. I
mentioned earlier that I was looking to make some big changes and that
is why it took me so long to actually write this blog. It has been hard
to come to terms with the decision I made, so I followed the advice of
my coach and lived my decision for a bit. But announcing it still
seemed difficult. And I didn't know what to say/write, but I figured I
should just put it down in words and figured people would forgive my
sub-par explaining. And, after living with my decision for a while, I'm
as ready as I will ever be. For the 2016 season, I have decided to
give up my professional card.
I've told a few people
about this decision and the response I get most of the time is something
between shock, incredulity and "why!?" Earning an elite card is a
goal triathletes work toward for a long time. For me, it was a dream
that I never thought would happen and then it did happen. Then, I was
lucky and blessed enough to be able to live my dream for 3 years! That
is a rare gift that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I can now
say that I played semi-professional soccer and then switched to
triathlon and raced professionally, that's pretty darn cool! But, as
many people know, triathlon can be a lonely sport. And professional
triathlon can be even more lonely. There were many times when I
traveled to other states either by myself, without my parents or without
my husband. I was lucky in that everywhere I went, I made new friends
or I was able to travel with friends, which is also incredible and an
amazing experience! But I began racing triathlon because I wanted to
spend more time with my family and traveling without my husband was
draining.
When I first got into the sport, I
was able to spend the majority of time training with my husband or my
dad or friends. Much of that time went away because I had to focus on
this set or that workout. I also wasn't able to train with the
Playmakers Elite running team as often because my workouts were very
specific and I felt I needed to focus on my workouts, my sets, my
intervals. There were many "my's" and this season I started to
fully realize the impact of this. I went weeks without riding with my
dad on the weekends, which had been a huge part of my life when I
started triathlon. I went months without training with my Playmakers
friends. I also found that between travel and training that I didn't
have time to become more involved with the Oak Park YMCA Team, which had
been a goal of mine for a couple seasons now. Additionally, I found
that when friends asked if I wanted to just hang out or get dinner, my
calendar was booked until, oh, about until the Come Clean Duathlon in
September. Although I loved racing pro and I loved the people I could
meet, I was tired of traveling and I was tired of missing my friends, my
family and my triathlon community. Not to mention the fact that I've
embarked on what I think has the potential to be a pretty great career
in psychiatry and I know I have the potential to help many people. With
two years of my psychiatry residency behind me and two more years to
go, I want to make sure I am learning as much as possible from my
supervisors and attendings so I can be the best psychiatrist possible.
Now,
enough with the downer stuff! As was my theme last year, I took my
prize money that I had earned this season and decided to add yet another
type of racing to my schedule: XTERRA. That's right! I'm going off
road baby! Now, this is an interesting decision for me. Let me
explain. Although I have always loved trail running, I don't mountain
bike very much. Actually, until I bought my new mountain bike a few
weeks ago, I hadn't mountain biked in 2 years. For me, mountain biking
was the fun, change-it-up thing that I did at the end of the season for a
couple rides with my dad or a way to get my bike workouts in when we
were on Mackinac Island. Well, I haven't been to Mackinac Island in
over 5 years and I had my second hip surgery last fall, so it has been a
while.
Why did I decided to
get into this? Well, why not?! Prior to earning my pro card, I had
dreamed of racing the XTERRA US Championship in Ogden, Utah, which is
where I have gone skiing a couple of times. I absolutely LOVE Ogden
and, watching the race on television, I wanted to be there and race
there. No matter that my mountain bike at the time cost about $400 and
my 50-something year old dad (who, granted, is very fit!!) could beat my
young butt up and down trails. But once I earned my pro card, I
couldn't race there without racing pro and I knew I wasn't ready for
that. So, giving up my pro card to focus on family, friends and that
whole career-thingy, gave me a chance to achieve another dream. I
bought the most beautiful mountain bike I have ever seen and started
hitting the trails for the past month. It has been exciting and
sometimes painful to learn this new sport, but I'm glad for the change!
I've also been able to ride with my friends and my dad much more
frequently. In the past few weeks, I've ridden with friends or family
more than I did all summer! With friends and family to check if I'm
okay when I fall then laugh loudly and take pictures, I can't imagine a
better way to get back to the basics and back to the reason I started
this crazy journey in the first place! I am looking forward to an
exciting 2016 season and I hope you all have a great end of your season
and a fun off season!
And yes, I really did fall like that. After checking to make sure I was okay and graciously helping to unclip my left foot (which was still clipped in after I had sprawled out), my husband insisted on taking pictures. I would give him a hard time about it, but I would have done the same!
