Colleen Wilcox Barb’s Race – 7/28/2012 – 70.3 When the season started I was pretty stressed out about how I was going to go from Sprint last season all the way to 70.3 this season. Then one day at a Nellie Gail swim Martha pointed out that Barb’s Racers were on an Olympic Plan until OC Tri at the end of May – a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was going to be on vacation during OC Tri, but I had a different Olympic race scheduled for June 10 and I thought; I can make it from Sprint to Olympic by the end of May, then I trust in Martha’s plans and know that she will help me double that by the end of July. There is a saying “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time” and it helped me remember that there were distance milestones between Sprint and 70.3 that I could focus on achieving as time went on. With that plan in mind I participated in the LA Tri Series which was a really awesome ‘progressive’ distance triathlon series at Bonelli Park in San Dimas. The April 15 race was a Sprint; the May 12 race was about 50% longer; then June 10 was an Olympic distance. As I was running toward the finish line that beautiful June day the tears started flowing – not from the joy of completing my first ever Olympic distance race but from the overwhelming fear of “how am I possibly going to complete twice this distance in just over 6 weeks!” Martha talked me off that ledge and reminded me that following the plan had gotten me this far, and continuing to follow the plan will get me to my next race goal healthy and ready. So I put away my fears, pulled on my big girl panties and got down to training… a LOT of training. I was so fortunate to have complete support at home and be able to put in the hours of training, laundry, grocery shopping, chiropractic care, massage and sleep that the plan called for. The people in my office got used to getting emails from me in the 4 and 5 o’clock hours of the morning then seeing my IM status change to say that I would be back around 9am (I do love the technology that allows me to work remotely at all hours of the day). There were days that I celebrated a meeting being cancelled because it meant that I could go meet the girls for a swim at Corona Del Mar; and the times that the family engagement was scheduled for the evening instead of the afternoon so I could get in my midday long ride followed by transition run for peak heat training AND still get to shower before meeting up with them ☺. As we moved into Taper everybody kept talking about the increase in energy… but that wasn’t happening for me. I spoke with Martha and explained that even with the decreased training load I was completely exhausted. She assured me that my energy surge would come, but maybe not until Tuesday. Tuesday night at spin I am sure that I have done something terribly wrong in my training plan because I am still dragging L Then, Wednesday morning – it happens… not only the energy, but the ‘euphoria’! It was incredible. Martha had played I Am Woman by Helen Reddy at spin Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I was living the chorus “If I have to; I can do anything; I am strong (strong); I am invincible (invincible); I am woman”. It was awesome! So, Thursday morning we are up at our usual times. My incredibly supportive (read understanding and tolerant as well) husband John is ready to load my stuff in the car but asks first “Do you want me to load your bike?”, “Is the ice chest ready to put in the car?”, “How about your TriBag?” because he knows that with my training brain and naturally control freakish personality things could get ugly fast if he moves something that I wasn’t done with yet. We get everything loaded and are on the road as scheduled. About 2 hours in I decide to recline my seat and catch a little nap. I wake to find us much further down the road and making good time. We stop for an early lunch, then back on the road. We arrive safe and sound in Windsor, get checked in to the hotel and have time for another little nap. We decide to walk to Windsor High School to check things out before having dinner and getting to bed early. I decide I would like to swim the river around the same time on Friday morning as I will be racing in it on Saturday, so John and I up are early to grab some breakfast. We caught up with Frances and Michelle, then were joined by Martha. It was really great to sit around talking about Ironman Arizona because it gave me an opportunity to think about something other than the race the next morning. We finish breakfast and head to Johnson’s Beach. The morning air is crisp. Since I will be racing without a wet suit I am doing my practice swim in just my bathing suit. The water temperature is lovely. The water is shallow, just like everybody said, but not as crystal clear as I had anticipated. As I swim back toward the starting point I see more TLVers getting in the water, then encounter even more of them on the shore when I get out. The swim was nice – so I am shocked to find that John is standing on the shore shivering; it seems I was warmer in the water than he was on dry land! We say our goodbyes and head back to the hotel to shower before going to the mandatory race talk. We met up with several of the girls to attend the first race briefing, then pick up our packet and go stake out an end cap in T2 !!! We do a little expo shopping and walk the transition ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ before heading back to grab lunch while we get out of the heat and off our feet for a few hours before heading back for the team meeting. We meet back up with Martha and the team for a final meeting. Martha encourages us to remember during the race: “it’s just the moment, not the day”. The dark moments will come, but they will go if we don’t dwell on them; similarly, the moments of nirvana may fade as well. She reminds us to just keep moving forward, that we have trained for this, we are strong, we are ready, and we will finish! I wipe a few tears from my eyes, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what we are all about to do… Wow, the time has come. We stop for a team photo at the finish line and then part ways and head back to the hotel. John and I walk over to the pasta place across the parking lot and have an early dinner. When we get back to the hotel some of the girls are taking their bikes for a quick final spin and practicing removing and replacing their rear wheels just in case of a dreaded flat. I ride a little, being sure the shift into a low gear before putting my bike away since I will probably forget to do so when I rack it in T1 tomorrow morning. I head back to the room to make a final check of all of my gear and am tucked into bed by 7pm for a really good night of sleep. We wake at 4am, load the car, get the morning nutrition routine going and head to Johnson’s Beach. John finds a great parking spot and helps me schlep my gear to T1. We arrive to find that Kelly had already staked out the end cap for us and I rack with her and Tricia. I set up my stuff and then head out to make several stops at the Port-a-Potty and watch the festivities get under way. We get to see the Vineman Full competitors start the race and hear the unbelievably fast swim splits of the elites. Then we get to see our AquaBikers into the water. And then it is time for us to be getting ready. Heading back to T1 there are women who didn’t bother to get there early squeezing in on our rack and trying to move our stuff; this is why Martha says get there early. So we make room for the late comers and proceed to get on the swim gear. We head down to the water’s edge, where John is standing with an open TriLaVie bag collecting team flip flops for those who have them. That was an awful lot to lead up to arriving healthy and prepared at the race start! Swim – 41:19 (goal <45:00) I was so busy keeping myself distracted that I almost missed our start. The Light Blue Caps of Wave 14 are in the water and getting a 30 second warning as I am rushing into the water. The horn blows and we are off. It is really crowded so I try to stay close to the left hand buoy. Within the first 50 yards I get a breastroke kick to my left goggle – dang, I hate that… but to quote the movie classic Finding Nemo “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”.