I celebrated my 40th birthday last month by completing an Olympic distance triathlon--the only endurance race of any kind I have ever attempted! Here's my story:
I did not fear it or avoid it. In fact, in some ways I looked forward to it!
There is something legitimate about turning 40. Like now I was a real adult. People would take me seriously now. My opinions mattered. I was a real person.
I never would have dreamed, however--not in a million years!--that I would celebrate my birthday by completing a triathlon. Me--of all people! This girl who hates exercise--who has struggled with her weight her whole life--who gets winded going up one flight of stairs--who didn't even OWN a bicycle...how does THIS girl end up in an Olympic distance triathlon, swimming .93 miles, biking 25 miles, and running 6.2 miles--on her 40th birthday no less? Well, here's how it happened...
It all started with Beyond Freedom.
Beyond Freedom is a 90-day personal development home study course. It's a journey of self discovery--audio lessons, journalling, and a workbook of exercises to uncover what has brought us to this point in our lives and how we can create the rest of our story.
One of the exercises is to write a list of 101 things you want to experience before you die. The lesson says, "This is the way we should all be living our lives. With specific intent. With a happy ending in mind, so that when you turn the last page of the book, you break into a warm knowing smile, maybe dry a small tear of heartfelt emotion and know it was a life well lived. A life of accomplishment. A legacy of purpose."
As I began my "bucket list," as people now call them now (the movie of that name wasn't out when I did mine!), I struggled to come up with 19 things I wanted to do. It was amazing to realize just how small my dreams had shrunk.
When I got to item 10, I started to write down "finish a marathon." I have always admired people who run marathons, and I thought, "Boy, if I could do that, that would really be something!"
But as I began to write it down, I thought, "What am I doing? I HATE running!"
I had a friend who was training for a triathlon at the time, and I thought, "Well, I like to bike and swim...," so I wrote down triathlon instead. But writing it down did not mean I was actually going to do it. It was just a pipe dream--something I thought maybe I would do sometime before I die.
I could not have imagined that I would turn that dream into reality in just over a year!
A few months after I began my Beyond Freedom study program, my family and I took a trip out out Oregon and Washington to visit family. While we were at my dad's house, I happened to look through his bookshelves and pick up a copy of The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.
I remembered seeing the authors on Oprah years ago. Their philosophy is that managing energy is more important than managing time. After all, you can have all the time in the world, but it is worthless if you don't have the energy to use it.
I started reading and fell in love with the book instantly. I read page after page about why my energy levels were the way they were and what I could do about it. I was excited! I told my dad how much I was loving the book, and he said I could have it if I wanted it. He had read it some time ago and didn't care much about it. "Yes! Thank you!," I said.
I continued to read it for the rest of our vacation and couldn't wait to get home and apply the techniques that they recommend.
In the book, the authors discuss our energy as being in four categories, each building upon the other. First you have your physical energy, next your emotional energy, then your intellectual energy, and finally, your spiritual energy. They say that in each area we must alternate between periods of activity and rest--just like training your body.
Your physical energy is your foundation. You must increase the quality of your physical energy first--exercise, get adequate sleep, eat healthy food, drink plenty of water, etc.--before you can work on the other three.
They repeatedly stress how important exercise is and recommend a type of exercise called High Intensity Interval Training. Their experience led them to believe that this was the most effective type of exercise--huge results with a minimum amount of time.
Well, I have never been one to exercise--it took too much time, and I struggled to see results--but I was excited to get home, find an HIIT exercise program, and try it out.
I found exactly what I was looking for in an online article titled HIIT and Run: This Aerobics Alternative Will Help Take You Out of the Fat Lane by Shawn Phillips on MuscleMedia.com.
The article gave an exact program for using HIIT with running. It starts at just four minutes and works up to only fifteen minutes. "Now that's my kind of exercise!," I thought. I couldn't wait to get started.
The way the program works is you sprint for 30 seconds, then jog for 30 seconds, and repeat. You start with four cycles, then add one cycle every other work out. No problem!
I had planned to work out Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, so the next Tuesday morning, I went out in front of my house and proceeded to run on the street as hard as I could for 30 seconds. Then I rested for 30 seconds. Then I ran as hard as I could...but I could only last 20 seconds. I rested for 30 seconds. Then I ran as hard as I could...but this time I only lasted 10 seconds. Again I rested. My fourth run, I again ran as hard as I could, but again only lasted 10 seconds.
I walked into my house and collapsed. Literally, I fell to the floor--completely wiped out. Useless. I could not believe how much four minutes of exercise took out of me. I called my husband (from the floor), and said, "They said it would only take 4 minutes--they failed to mention that I would be wiped out the entire rest of the day!" Truly, for 24 hours I could barely move. I think we ordered pizza for dinner that night!
On Thursday, I tried again. Again, I was able to run the same amount: 30-20-10-10. But THIS time, I was only out of commission about 2 hours. Hmm. Improvement.
On Friday, a friend and I took our kids to the lake, and as we were sitting on the beach watching them, I told her what I was doing. I said, "Tomorrow I'm supposed to add another cycle--but I don't think I should add one until I can at least do two full cycles!"
She said, no, to go ahead and add the cycle anyway, "Your body will catch up." When I remembered that she used to be a competitive body builder, I decided to take her advice, so the next day I added my fifth cycle.
That day, I still had the same results--30-20-10-10 and now another 10 second sprint. BUT my recovery was only 10 minutes! In 3 workouts I had gone from completely exhausted and unable to function after a workout, to being raring to go after only a 10 minute rest. Amazing!
Day after day I pressed on, and day after day I got better. Alison was right--my body did catch up. After I got up to about 8 cycles, I hardly felt it anymore, and at around 10 cycles, I felt like I could go forever as long as I had that 30 second rest.
I began to think--gosh, maybe I COULD do a triathlon. Maybe I could do one not just before I die, but before I'm 50!
Of course, at the time, I didn't know anything about triathlons. I knew that they consisted of a swim, a bike, and a run, but how long was each leg? Did you have to run a whole marathon at the end?
I did some research and found that there are basically four standard lengths: The Sprint, the Olympic, the Half-Ironman, and the Ironman. Only the Ironman requires a full marathon. Whew!
I decided that I would shoot for the Sprint triathlon: 750 m (0.5 mi) swim, 20 km (12.4 mi) bike, and 5 km (3.1 mi) run. As I gained confidence, I began to think, "Maybe I don't have to wait until I'm 50--maybe I could do it before I'm 40!"
As I continued to train, lots of miraculous things happened. I found an incredible training program that exactly fit my skill level and personality. A friend was participating in the Avon Walk and asked me to join her. While I didn't want to walk, I helped out by working the crew--biking nearly 60 miles over the course of two days...great preparation for my race ahead! I ended up swimming in the lane next to a swimming coach who gave me lots of pointers. I found that the bike I had bought was inadequate, and a friend went out of his way to find me a better one. I interviewed a woman for my Look What They Did! article series who had discovered an injury free running program.
All the pieces were falling together in an amazing way.
During this time, I met a woman at the gym who was a triathlete, and we talked about various things. She highly recommended the Sprint triathlon at Dewey Beach. She said it was a great course, and since it was on Saturday, you could get it out of the way and then just relax on Sunday.
So the Dewey triathlon became the plan. It was in September--after my birthday--but that was OK. It would still be my 40th year.
Then one day I went looking online for the exact dates of the triathlon. But I forgot that Dewey Beach is in Delaware, and I was looking in the list of Virginia triathlons. There, to my shock and amazement, I found a triathlon that was ON MY BIRTHDAY in one of my favorite places in the world--Luray, Virginia. It wasn't a Sprint triathlon, though--it was an Olympic! 1.5 k (0.93 mi) swim, 40 km (24.8 mi) bike ride, and 10 km (6.2 mi) run.
It was twice the length of the triathlon I had mentally prepared for, but it was just too perfect. A triathlon on my 40th birthday! I couldn't resist. The game was on.
Over the course of the next few months, training got long, but I revelled in how far I had come. Just a year ago, I couldn't even run 4 minutes! And now, here I was, facing a 5 hour endurance event.
As I trained and learned more and more about triathlons and what to expect, I came up with my personal goal times. My number one goal, of course, was just to finish. And that was what I had written in my Beyond Freedom--to finish a triathlon.
I looked up the finish times from last year and came up with my overall goals:
For the swim, I wanted to finish in 45 minutes.
For the bike, I wanted to finish in 2 hours.
Running was always hardest for me, so I didn't set a goal there, but I wanted to finish the entire race in under 5 hours--which meant that if I hit the other goals, I would have 2 hours and 10 minutes to run, walk, or crawl if I had to.
And finally, I didn't want to be last.
A few weeks before race day, as it all started to become "real," I suddenly had a sense of panic--several "oh my gosh, what the heck have I gotten myself into!?" moments. I found myself wishing I would get sick or injured so that I would have an excuse not to finish. But I pressed on.
Eventually I settled into the mindset of "it is, what it is." I no longer had time to improve my stroke or pick up my running pace. If I wasn't sitting right in my seat or changing gears when I needed to be, then too bad. It wasn't going to get fixed now.
The night before the race we packed up our gear and headed out to Luray. Our first stop was downtown to pick up my race packet. I walked into a sports store, was surrounded by athletes, and was struck by the fact that I actually felt like I was one of them. For so long I had felt incredibly inadequate compared to other "real" athletes. I wasn't one of them--what the heck was I doing? But I didn't feel that way in the store. Mentally, I had come a long way, too.
After a bite to eat, we headed to our hotel in New Market, a town not too far away (all the hotels in Luray were booked).
It was still dark when we got up in the morning to pack and head to the park. The race started at 8am, but we planned to be there at 6:30 or so to get checked in, marked up, and settled.
The morning was chilly (in the low 60s) and very foggy. Because of the fog we got to the park a little late, but not too bad. There was plenty of time.
First we had to park the car and carry all the gear up to the transition area--that's where you store your bike and stuff. We not only had all my triathlon gear, but blankets, a picnic basket, and toys for the kids. It was going to be a long day for everyone.
My number came with my race packet--401. They gave me a sticker for my bike, a sticker for my helmet, and a number I was supposed to pin on the front of my jersey. I still had to pick up my timing chip, though--a little device they attached to my ankle to keep track of my starting and ending times for each section. They also had to mark my body with numbers to keep track of me--401 on my arm, and my age, 40, on my leg. I was official!
With the help of one of the other athletes, I got my bike set up on my assigned section of the racks. Then I set out my towel, my shoes, and my helmet, and I was all set. I was as ready as I ever would be!
The race started at precisely 8:00am, but they sent everyone in in waves two minutes apart. Each wave was determined by age and gender and was designated by the color of your cap. I was in the fourth wave and started at 8:06am.
Despite the fact that it was a chilly morning, the water was perfect--not cold at all. With my heart racing and my head spinning, I entered the water and awaited the starting pistol.
I had trained well for the swim, and though I wasn't fast, I was steady and confident. The hardest part was the fact that I couldn't see. I had swum a test lap in the lake a month or two before, so I was prepared for murky water. What I wasn't prepared for was the sunrise that was directly in my eyes each time I came up for air. So I couldn't see below me and I couldn't see above me--all I could do was follow the other swimmers and hope they were going in the right direction.
The swim took me 44 minutes, and I was relieved to look back and see that I was not the last one out of the water. Woo hoo! First goal accomplished.
Next, I headed out on the bike. At the first pedal, I groaned to discover how tired my legs were! Though I had trained on the transition from bike to run, I hadn't trained from swim to bike. What a surprise! It seems that when you swim a mile, your legs get a little worn out!
One of my main fears as I began the race was that I had spent so much time training for the event that I hadn't spent enough time learning the rules. Consequently I was terrified that I was going to do something wrong and receive a penalty or be disqualified. So as I began to leave the park on my bike, my heart stopped when I heard the announcer call my name.
There were two lanes to choose from, and I wasn't quite sure which one I should take. My name was called just as I was heading out on what I thought was the bike lane, so I stopped--thinking I was off course. The announcer said, "No, no, Margie keep going!" Turns out he was just making a joke about my bike--I think he said something about me winning the contest for the oldest bike in the race.
"You should have seen the bike I had before this one!," I thought. I was so grateful for my friend Paul, who had gotten the "new" bike for me and helped me train. It was a tough ride on that bike, but I would not have been able to finish at all on the one I had before.
Like all the other legs, the bike was a two loop course. As I was heading out on my first loop, everyone else was going around for the second time. Almost every single person that passed me made a comment about my bike. Things like, "Wow, you are brave to come out here on that bike," "I really admire you on that bike," and "You have the toughest ride of anyone here!" Geez. My bike was such an improvement over the one I had before that I didn't realize it sucked!
The bike ride was hard--MUCH harder than I thought it would be. Part of it was due to my tired legs after the swim. Part of it was due to the very hilly course--much hillier than I had remembered from checking it out a couple months before the race, and definitely more hilly than the path I had trained on.
For many many miles I was all alone with hardly any indication that I was in a race. It was tough--much tougher than I thought it would be--and I had to keep telling myself that I was just on a ride with Paul and he was just up ahead. Only during the bike ride did the thought of giving up enter my mind. It was so hard! What was I doing?
At every hill I said to myself, "Stay on the bike...stay on the bike." It was so tempting to get off and walk, but I knew that if I did, it would be harder to get back on.
On one particularly difficult hill, I wondered if I would make it. I decided to count to 100 and then reassess. I counted and counted and counted and pushed and pushed and pushed and by the time I got to 100, it had leveled out a bit. "See?" I said to myself, "No need to get off--it's getting better already."
Finally I got near the end and faced the final hill, which had a huge, steep incline. I knew from before that it was coming. I was on my highest gear. I went fast to get some momentum, and then I started counting. Around 30, however, I just couldn't take it anymore, and so I got off the bike and walked the rest of the way up. At the top, I got back on--it was downhill from there to the park.
I got into the park with no idea of what time it was or whether I was last or not. It seemed I had been on the road for hours and hours. I unloaded my bike and helmet, changed my shoes and headed out on the run.
I had always planned on walking that last stretch if I had to, and I definitely had to. It was all I could do to just keep moving forward. As I headed out, my 8 year-old daughter said to me, "Mom, how come you're not running?" Ha ha ha! I told her I was a little tired.
As I left, I heard my husband say, "You're doing great--you're right on schedule." Really? I couldn't believe it. I felt I had been out there FOREVER on the bike! Those words were the best thing anyone could have said to me at that moment. It bolstered my confidence, and I went out with a smile.
As it turned out, I did the bike leg in 2 hours 20 minutes -- 20 minutes longer than I had hoped. But still, everyone was impressed at how well I was able to estimate my time on each leg of the race.
The 10K run was, like the other legs, two loops. We headed out about a mile and a half, turned around and came back to the park, then did it again.
I thought perhaps I could walk the first round and then run the second.
On my way out, I passed a few stragglers--everyone cheering each other on. After I made the first turnaround, however, I ran into another racer, who I assumed was making her second loop. When she asked me how far it was to the turnaround, I realized it was her first. We got to talking, and it turned out that she had had bike troubles and came in AFTER me. So I had reached my goal of not being last after all! Woo hoo!
As I started my second loop, I thought perhaps I could run a little bit--maybe I could count like I had on the bike and run 100 steps, walk 100 steps, etc. Well, I ran my 100 steps, but then I just couldn't start again. I ended up walking almost the entire way--just until I was about to enter the park and approach the finish line. The other girl passed me, and I was indeed the last one to finish the race.
As I reached the park, with my fans cheering me on and the race officials directing me to the finish line, all I could focus on was--what time is it? I wanted to know if I had made my 5 hour goal.
Unfortunately, by the time I came in, they had taken all the equipment down, so I did not receive an official end time. But by everyone's estimation, I had done it. My husband even took a picture of the time on the cell phone to prove it.
After I turned in my chip, workers fell over backwards to get me food and drink. My cheerleaders hugged me, and I was just TIRED. I thought that I would be weepy, but I wasn't so much at the end. All along the race, though, I would start to get choked up about how I couldn't believe I was actually doing this and how far I had come. I would start to cry--embarrassed that the other athletes might think I was hurt or something!--and then that would make me have a hard time breathing. So I would shake it off, focus, and get back to what I was doing.
After the race, several people asked if I would be doing another one. I initally replied, "Oh, I don't think so!," but I have decided that doing a triathlon is like having a baby. Don't ask a woman right away if she is going to have another--she needs time to forget how painful it was!
During my training, I definitely loved the bike riding the best. I had not ridden a bike in 20 years, and I had forgotten how much fun it is! I thought that perhaps I would like to do a "Century Ride"--a 100 mile "marathon" for bikers.
Shortly after the triathlon, though, as I reflected on my experience, I got a little upset at myself that I didn't push through and run more. I thought maybe I would focus just on running for awhile--do some 10K runs and overcome my weakness. After that, maybe I would do another triathlon just to prove to myself that I really could do all three legs.
But then an amazing opportunity fell in my lap--something completely unexpected and yet giddiously exciting.
I happened to be on craigslist (I am NEVER on craigslist!) and saw an ad for bike riders to participate in an 800 mile ride from Chicago to New York (over a period of two weeks) to raise awareness for child abuse and domestic violence.
It piqued my curiousity, so I wrote to the woman who had placed the ad. Turns out they are filming a documentary that will be shown in shelters around the country, and they are sponsoring this bike ride to generate media buzz.
Barbara Brower, the woman who is putting this together, and I emailed back and forth and then spoke on the phone and really connected. It seems the message of this project is the same as the message I have felt called to preach as well: that you don't have to put up with your current circumstances and can change your life!
I am thrilled to be participating in this event, and though it will be a lot of work to get my body in shape enough to do it, I am up for the challenge.
After all, if I can do a triathlon, I can do anything!
