Not Training Related

I sent my baby to high school this morning. I am sure that the emotion she felt was way different than what I felt. I cannot speak for her feelings, but I was feeling that this is just one more stop in the road of her reaching adulthood and leaving the nest. Being Ally's mom, this is a hard realization. She has always been the child that wanted to be held and loved on. I am just very thankful that she still lets me crawl in bed, cuddle her and kiss her tons! I am sure all of this will be ending but I hope not.

Most of last night and this morning was spent praying for her, her friends, her teachers and the people God will put in her path. I read a book a few years ago "The Power of a Praying Parent". That was one of the best books on parenting I have ever read. The things I didn't even think to pray about. Be assured Ally and Jordan have been covered in pray thanks to this book. There is nothing mom and dads that you can't pray for now for their futures. I promise to not give you a sermon, but we all know this little thing about just because your prayer wasn't answered the way you wanted it to be, doesn't mean it wasn't answered. I use to be the one who would keep praying thinking the outcome would be different. Then I learned to pray and let it go. It was heard...I just had to be prepared for the answer no matter what it was.

Back to today, I asked her if I could follow her into school like I did when she was in kindergarten and she said "NO WAY"! I guess I was lucky to get this one.

I hope and pray that all of you who read who have children that they had a great first day.

I miss blogging

Hello blog world..... It has been a long time. This feels like a reunion! I haven't been blogging but I have missed it. So with that said, I have decided that I was going to start it up again.

Since we last talked, nothing much is new in my life. Well lots of things are new and I will share them with you all and I will try to keep it short. I know your shaking your head saying "yeah right Amy, this is you"!

OK here we go. I have completed 4 other sprint triathlons. My swim continues to improve but boy I have a long way to go. I am learning that it is not about everyone else, it is about me. Race myself and stop worrying what the girl or guy next to me is doing. If I improve from race to race that is all that matters. How many people wish they could do do three sports, one right after the other until you cross the finish line. Well I can....so that is all that should matter except for improvement.

I am training again for a marathon. So I have tried to focus on running and cross training. I need to keep the other two sports up so that my hopes of an international length triathlon doesn't go to the back burner because I want to complete a marathon. The running is going good. I am aware once again of my limitations and not pushing them to avoid injury. My coach helps with! She is constantly reeling me in....LOL! Poor Suzanne. I have to be one of the most diffecult clients that she has due to the fact I am a "self coacher" as well. In a few weeks I am heading to Virgina Beach for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon with Jess, Kevin, Jill and John. Now all of us but John have trained so I can't wait to see the outcome and if he finishes before me. Don't be suprised if he comes up missing because I am likely to take him out to the ocean and drown him if he does happen to finish before me. I am just kidding, but that would be par for the course.

We have had alot of "life" happenings lately. I hope that most people know this but let me remind you if you have forgotten. We are not promised that life is going to ever be easy. I don't care how hard you work, how good you think you are or all the good things you do for others. You are guarenteed to be tossed a struggle or two. It is how we handle those struggles and what we learn from it that matters. In March, John and I were told by my oldest daughter that she was pregnant. Of course I wanted to give her the same speaches over and over but I saved those and just ran them through my own head. She had decisions to make that I would not ever, ever had wished for her to have to make at such a young age. She has been thrust into the grown up world very quickly. All I could say as a parent is that I would love her through whatever she decided and we would look to our faith to pull us through. God has provided greatly! Jordan and Adam have decided upon adoption and I have never felt such at ease about decision in my life. I just hope and pray her heart heals quickly knowing that God brought the perfect family for this miracle of life. But as a mother, I am not sure how long that healing process will take. I can once again, just love her through the decision and hope she will accept the love! Jordan is the child that a mother wants to shake and say wake up, let the people around you love you and ask for help if you need it. Oh well, I could write a book on this one. I just pray and ask that my praying friends keep her the adoptive family in your prayers as well. I guess the next biggest event, is that Ally starts High School on Tuesday. Boy were has the time gone. We just looked at pictures of her starting kindergarten the other day. John told her he was going to walk her into high school and take her picture as well. She wasn't buying that idea at all. Time flies by when your having fun doesn't it.

Well I have given you a short and quick run down of what is happening with me not that any of you cared (just kidding), but this has ended up as an outlet for my sanity since the conception of the blog. Sometimes it just helps to pound it out....

Stay tuned.... I am back! Have a great day!

Interpretation

I know I said I wasn't blogging anymore but I just had to share this. If you feel wronged, ever, you should look into it. I may turn out in your favor.

For those of you that read my "race report" you know how excited I was! You know that it took alot for me to get to that point. More mental than physical, I think. After a friendly phone call to tell me my time wasn't posted and that I was subsequently found on a DQ list, you can only imagine the devastation I felt. How could that be? Did they know how hard I worked, did they remember saying I could wear it? Obviously not. The joy of finishing my first triathlon had been stripped from me. The rug pulled right out from under me, the air in my balloon deflated...you get the picture....I will tell you devastation doesn't begin to describe it. I think I was close to a nervous breakdown. Jill wanted to come and take all sharp objects and drugs from my home. I kept saying to myself, if I had known that was what I worked so hard for, hell I would of saved myself 15 minutes into that stupid lake swim. I was mad! Mad at USAT, Set-Up events, but most of all I was mad at MYSELF! What was I thinking? I knew I wasn't ready for that swim. Humiliation would also be what I was feeling. I wanted someone to know it as well!

So me being me, I write a letter. I send this letter to anyone who will listen. Thinking all the while, it won't make a difference but it will sure as heck make me feel better to tell them how hard I worked for them to strip me of my pride and accomplishments! Not really happy or satisfied with the responses I got, I decide to go one level higher (just because at this point it is a mission of mine). I email USAT. I pay for the membership and I want them to know what I think of their rule and can't there be a better way! Yeah I know, not the girl you want to make mad! I will either boycott you or write you a letter! Nike, CVS and numerous restaurants have felt the wrath before and I am sure there will be others. Childish you might think but people should stand up more often and be heard! Ok back to the point...... I sent a letter to USAT. I got a response back today......"Hello Amy,congratulations on overcoming your fear and completing the White Lake Triathlon. If water temperature was 79.2, you should not have been disqualified. Our procedure, which must have been bypassed, is to change the wetsuit wearing competitor out of age group division and into a "wetsuit" division and let them race. Disqualification is not correct". Charlie at USAT then proceeds to send me my times and tells me that there is a USAT Penalty sheet that does say Disqualified but that must be for administration purposes. Great Charlie! My joy is returning. But what about the other people who might have felt this way on Monday morning when their friends called them? Like I have said to a couple of people, after I was cited some rules for USAT, my other friends and family don't understand rules, they understand that something I worked hard for, didn't happen. They know out beside bib no. 178 is a big fat DQ.

So friends and family, I was not DQ'd. I did finish, I did get a time and I wasn't last! My friend Chuck told me it really didn't matter what the stupid computer said, I know that I finished and I know how hard I worked and Chuck you are absolutely correct. Except today, I don't feel like it was all for nothing. I had even put my White Lake Shirt away vowing to never wear it since I was DQ'd. Well I will wear that shirt proudly every chance I get! I have this thing about wearing shirts if you didn't complete the race.

The point again is, if you feel wronged, and I felt way wronged, please question it. This may not of turned out in my favor and I was fully prepared for that since the joy was gone anyway, but it did! It turned out someone else's interpretation was wrong.

Ambition or Stupidity - not sure which

Obviously, you all know that I am not blogging anymore. I did want to share the last one with you though. I feel like you all have traveled the journey with me and I owed it to you to tell you about it.

Recap, you know I have been training for a triathlon. As well, you know that I just learned to swim. If that is what you want to call what I do. LOL! If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? I am well aware of my limitations. Swimming is definitely one of them. But I get up three days a week and go to the pool and punish myself. I did go through a time that I hated the swim portion so badly that I didn't train like I should have but have learned, it is not like cramming for a test. Lesson learned, got it train, train, and more train! Moving along....

When I started this idea, I registered for the White Lake Sprint II. I needed a goal. So I waited for registration to open and sat by the computer and got John and I in. We trained hard together and had a ton of fun doing it most days. 4 months later and here we are. Bags packed and we are headed to White Lake. Nerves are in check. I spent plenty of days during the week panic stricken. Sunday is creeping up on us. I watch the Half Ironman on Saturday and am in awe of the athletes. The day is hot and windy and they did it! It will definitely take a year of training for that. Saturday night is upon us and we all go out for a good dinner and lots of salt! I have never seen so much salt used at one table, ever. A good nights sleep under my belt and John and I are off. We park, we pump tires or so we think.... someone thought they put air in my tires when really they took care of their own bike and forgot all about mine. It was fine, they had a tent set-up for these types of things. Transition area set up and ready. Then they call the water temperature. Too warm to be wetsuit legal. DREAD! That is the only thing I can call it. I make the decision based on the fact I am not going to win any awards or points for this race. I just want to finish. Whatever that means in the USAT world, I am wearing my wetsuit. I am surrounded by people who have trained with me, loved me, and coached me! They are encouraging and all the while I am sure they are worried. Cause, I am....... I get in the water to warm up and I feel great. I get in the line (in water start) and my goggle strap breaks! I feel a little panic welling up but Jenn Harris calms me. The countdown is over and we are swimming. Slow steady strokes is what I tell myself, well bamb, I get kicked in the head. Bamb, someone runs into me.... I don't have to tell you what happened next. PANIC sets in and it doesn't leave. There were plenty of times (too many to count) when I said to myself just quit, you can't do this. For every time I said that, I heard my husband in my head telling me I could do it, I heard my coach Suzanne Duncan telling me I could do it, I heard Jamie O'Sullivan telling me I could do it, I heard Marisa Pirih telling me I could do it, Pam and John Connor telling me I could do it, my friend Jill telling me I could it, Christina telling me I could do it. Then I heard the man in the kayak ask me what my name was. He told me "Amy you can do it, if you get past the first buoy, your home free, it gets easier". I think I told him I didn't know if I could get to that first buoy. He told me I could. He said I looked strong. HE LIED! But I am glad he did. Then my husband swims up to me or near me I should say and offers to give up his race to stay with me. He didn't want to leave me out there. I cry as I type that! Because he had a special reason for racing yesterday. It was for his mom. Whom most of you know passed away a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't do that to him! I wanted him to go, if it meant leaving me in water that I felt like at times would swallow me up. You know your in trouble when the men in the rescue boat are standing up watching you and asking if your ok, waiting to jump in and save you! "Boys, I got it, it may not look like it or feel like it but I got it, Thanks". I am positive God placed angels in that water to help me. I round the second buoy and then there is the orange blow up man swishing in the wind.... I can do this, I can do this... who cares if I am last! I wasn't but almost! I get out of the water and of course I am mad at myself... but I remember what my coach said, there is no finish line at the swim exit. So I get started on pulling that wetsuit off and I run. Smiling that guess what, I got out of that damn lake and I can now move on to something I can do, ride my bike. Damian did not let me down. My friend Jill, Christina and I have named our bikes.... Damian, Lucifer and Delores. Jill is not as fond of her bike yet and Christina is just such a happy go lucky person we named hers a happy name! I get started on the bike and I say to myself, the swim is over, forgotten, just ride. I do just that, I passed plenty of people that I know got out of the water before me and that made me smile. I came on a kid that had 14 on his leg and I yell out,"hey kid, it is mother's day, let me pass you!" Look you do what you can...don't worry he caught me. 14 miles later, I am ready to run. I rack my bike, get my shoes on, water bottle in hand, because I drank no water during the bike ride because I lost my water bottle. Road was rough in some spots. So I know I need to drink, I dehydrate easily. I get started on legs that feel like they weigh 400 lbs. I tried eating some sport beans as well, couldn't open them and run with a bottle. Yes I walked. Got my beans in and started again. Then mother nature took over and I need the bathroom. I swore I was not going to stop to use the bathroom during the race. Lots of lessons learned for the next race. So I added a few minutes there. I wanted to stay at 30 minutes but oh well....but you know I didn't know how long I had been out there, I didn't wear a watch on purpose. My goal was to finish this race and I did!

When I came down the finishing stretch and all my friends where there with my husband and I heard them screaming my name, I knew I had arrived. It just didn't matter how long it took me in that lake. It didn't matter how long it took me on the bike or to run. I had FINISHED something I didn't ever think I could. In this lifetime I never thought I would get in a lake and swim. I have plenty of friends who can attest to this. I overcame a fear that has plagued me since I was a very young child. I DID IT! I cried! I have never felt anything like that before.

I have so many people to thank that I don't even know where to begin...You know who you are and you know what you mean to me..... THANKS will never be enough. I hope that I can be as supportive to you when you need it like you have been to me.

Signing off blog world!

Sometimes training can be boring.....

I only mean that I don't have any fantastic revelations to write about. I swim (ok I actually have to do it more often), I bike and I run...... I have great friends who are with me. The bestest friend ever is by my side daily pushing me to be the best I can be. If it weren't for my husband I might slide on a few workouts. I really should thank him instead of nagging at him for staying on my back. Then there is my Suzanne. She has to constantly reassure me that it is all good and I can do this! I think she realy has a little bag of hats that she wears with me. Coach, friend, counselor...... I am sure there are more, but she is great!

Although I love, love, love snow, I am looking forward to sunshine and warmth for bike rides outside and running through the greenscapes of the parks instead of the dreary brownscapes we have now. Although, I noticed my eyes are burning. Time to call the Dr. for some eye drops. That is the part I hate the most about Spring. Other than that, I need to get my butt in gear and focus on weight loss and overall strenght and endurance. Funny how last year I felt like a strong runner (for me) and now some days I feel like I am barely going to make it. But last year I couldn't swim or ride a bike so I guess you give up some of that strenght to share with the other sports.

Here is hoping for something exciting to write about soon.

Not much different in the training world going on

I know I haven't written since the snow but not alot going on any different than you are use to hearing about. However, today, in the cold and rain we are getting ready to go run the Beer Run 09 to support Special Olympics.

I am not a fan of running in the rain or the cold, but hey at the end there is beer. I love cold beer at the end of a run....So off to get ready.....

Hopefully there will be pictures of this to post. Stay dry and warm and be thinking of all of crazy runners out there today.

I love snow

Today we woke up to a winter wonderland here in the central part of NC. I had to share a photo or two with you.

I turn into a kid when they call for snow. Of course we went to the grocery store for the essentials. I sat on the couch and waited all day long. Then when it started I was up and down looking at it to make sure it hadn't stopped and that is was sticking. I made my usual phone call to my dad to see what it was doing at his house. This is a family tradition so to speak. My grandmother called everyone no matter what time to tell you the first flake had fallen. No need for sitting by a window then, she was always happy to be on weather duty. This is absolutely the most beautiful sight I think there is. So that meant not much sleep because I thought if I closed my eyes it would stop. Well the snow continued and blanketed the ground and streets.

I hope that if you have to get out in it, you will be safe!