FOLLOW THIS MOM OF SIX ON HER QUEST TO CONQUER A TRIATHLON

In the spring of 2006, New Braunfels' Kaarina Owens, mom of 6 and co-author of the Put a Lid on It! cookbook series, decided to train for the Danskin Triathlon.  Follow her training trials and tribulations,  from her first workout to the big day.

JUNE 11, 2007 - RACE DAY!!! (CONTINUED)

By about 7AM the race was underway…We were able to watch the pros (who are allowed to go first so that us dingalings don’t get in the way) start the race and see what this was all about.  They allow about 125 people to start at a time.  We, the novices were WAAAAY in the back.  Thank goodness.  Next to begin were the true heroes of the day, and I say that with the utmost respect and sincerity.  Today there were 125 breast cancer survivors racing.  They were the reason we were there today and the fight that lay ahead of us for the next few hours began to pale in comparison to what these women had faced.  My fellow racers and I bowed our heads to pray for these women and for strength and courage of our own for this day.

Finally, the time had come.  We were ushered into the water where we received a motivational speech from a woman who had completed over 100 triathlons of her own.  We were told that it would be helpful to come up with a “mantra” to carry us through.  The first one that popped into my mind at that point was, “I am woman, watch me drown”….OK, I guess that wasn’t the most inspiring, so I decided to adapt the suggested mantra “be aggressive, be strong”.

With bullhorn in hand, the director counted us down and just like that, we were racing.  The swim was a lot more intimidating and a whole lot harder than I had imagined.  There were as I said, 125 of us pushing off at once and so I can’t even tell you how many times I was kicked in the face, pulled down, scratched and kicked some more.  I was also swallowing plenty of lake water, fighting the choppy waves of the lake (yes, there were little waves) and fighting nausea due to the smell of gasoline from the rescue boats sitting nearby.  I know that they were there to help but I think it made it too tempting to jump into and give up…I didn’t do that of course, so I tried to just focus on each buoy in front of me and keep on kicking. I was able to reach the end in one piece, despite already feeling quite breathless and tired.  I did however dig deep for a little bit of energy to run up the hill back to my bike.

At that point I threw on my gear (ok, I didn’t throw it on I just casually put it on…remember, I wasn’t worried about those precious seconds, at least not this time around) and walked over to the bike start line.  It felt good to know that we were on the 2^nd leg of the race already.  I took off with good energy and to be honest, the first few miles of the bike portion were relatively easy and I was even able to smile and give a thumbs up to my husband and son who were on the sideline.  All that smiling turned to pure angst just a few minutes up the road when I hit the most enormous hill.  There were people on the ground, some walking up the hill, and even a paramedic team waiting at the top.  Despite all of the discouraging sites there at the hill, I managed to find the strength to make it to the top without stopping.  I was proud of myself and thought that since that had to be the hardest part of the race, I was good to go for the rest of the bike portion.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, there is no such thing as 1 hard hill in a triathlon bike portion.  Those sarcastic comments of my triathlon journaling youth really came back to haunt me.

Now, for those of you who decide to try this type of event in the future, using a fool like me for inspiration, let me tell you that there are these race volunteers on the side of the road who tell you that you are on the last hill, at every hill.  I guess they do that to keep you encouraged and strong.  Even though you realize after the 2^nd or 3^rd hill that they are lying, the heat and exhaustion causes you to believe them time after time,  kind of like a desert mirage…By about the 20^th hill I finally caught on that they were in fact lying and didn’t listen anymore.  Of course it was at the 20^th hill that the bike portion was over and so my mind rested easy.


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