Crazy, Clumsy, Yet Motivated

I’m still in shock about what I did yesterday. I turned 29 and as a gift, I asked my parents to help me with registration for the Ironman 70.3 Vineman Triathlon next year in Sonoma County. What's a 70.3 you might ask? You start with a 1.2 mile swim, transition to a 56 mile bike ride, and end with a half marathon (13.1 miles). I know...CRAZY!

Registration just so happened to open at 9 a.m. on November 1^st…my big day! With great anticipation, I woke up at 8 a.m. got online and waited till it officially opened. Sure enough, I did it!

It’s now 24 hours later and I am going through the “WHAT THE HELL DID I GET MYSELF INTO?” mode. After I registered, I went to Jax my new favorite bike shop to pick up my Lexa…the bike I plan to use for training and my event. For those of you in So Cal, Jax is a great place to shop for a bike. The general manager, Chris at the Huntington Beach store is a triathlete himself so he was great at helping me choose the right bike.



Trek Lexa SL or as I call her, Lexa





I shared with Chris some of my fears about the triathlon…one being the distance, second being my fear of falling off the bike. Sad to say, it didn’t take very long for that to happen…walked out the door with Lexa, decided to ride her to the car, and baaam!

My first bike injury

I couldn’t seem to get my foot out of the pedal and right . The knee looks worse than it was but it did hurt on impact. Truth is, this is the part of the triathlon that I’m fearing the most but I hope to get more comfortable as I go. We took Lexa home and I wanted to just put her in the garage and call it a day. My boyfriend stopped me, gave me a hug and said, “Come on babe, it’s just gonna take time.” Well, at first he said, “You didn’t spend all that money to not ride it!” So we did just that…we spent the rest of the afternoon riding our bikes (he has a beach cruiser) and having fish tacos at our favorite local spot. During dinner, we couldn’t help but laugh at my clumsiness. We ended the night with a little slice of chocolate cake to celebrate. It looks like that was all I needed to make me feel better.



Hey...don't judge! It was my birthday!

So the real question is WHY? Why did I decide to do this? Two words…Brian Boyle. I had the amazing opportunity to meet Brian at a conference I went to a few weeks ago. His story touched my heart! I always said I wanted to do a triathlon but meeting him and reading his book, Iron Heart, changed me. It taught me to cherish my family and to challenge myself to the fullest because you never really know who you are and what you have until it's almost gone. He is truly an inspiration. Thank you for sharing you story Brian. I'm not going for a full, but I'm certainly going to "tri" a half.

What’s your motivation?