The Night Before...

Here we are at Lake Stevens, the cool side of the state, today’s high was 97 degrees! We arrived yesterday in New Castle, where our sweet friend Cindy Doty graciously offered her home, when we pulled in the driveway, we realized why the area was called New Castle, because all the houses are amazing pieces of architecture, just like castles!! Thank you Cindy for your thoughtfulness and generosity.

After we unpacked at Cindy’s, the Thompson’s and Best’s, drove to Lake Stevens to check out the race site. We were able to get in our open water that our coach (Roger) had on our training schedules for that day. It was a great “fear buster” for me. I thought that I had become immune to the grossness of “what lies beneath”. However as Jessi and I took of from the shore to swim, we got about 50 yards out and Jessi came up laughing. As she was surveying the lake floor, she couldn’t help thinking that if it was creeping her out, it must be freaking me out!! As she came up to see if I was o.k., I had my head above water trying to talk myself out of freakingJ!! We did an out and back swim (3/4 mile) and on the way back Jessi put me through her Jessi “IRONMAN” Thompson swim boot camp! The whole way back she followed me and proceeded to bump, hit, pull, push and crowd me and my task was to keep swimming like she wasn’t bothering me!! It was an awesome “fear buster” and confidence builder for me. She is such an amazing Tri mentor!!

After the swim we drove one loop of the bike course (28 miles)! It looked a little daunting to me, my stomach started to ache. It is constant rolling hills, requiring a lot of shifting, and some that looked very steep! Today when we went to pick up our race packets, we had a chance to ride the 2nd half of the course and that was another “fear buster” for me. For once the hills actually looked worse from the car? Probably because Kevin surprised me with new Zip Racing Wheels, WOW was I surprised (1,000,000 love tank points for you honey), I am certain these race wheels will make me go fasterJ!

We are now back at Cindy’s and we are all getting our race equipment ready and our transition bags packed. Then it is time to rest and fuel my body, calm my mind and try to get a good night sleep (right). We will arise at 4:00 am to begin the pre-race rituals and journey to the start line. It is my hope to be posting my next blog as an IRONMAN 70.3 Finisher!!

Wish me Luck……….Love to all…………Kathi

Getting ready for my first 70.3!

So, here I am on Thursday night, 10:30pm, going through my pre-race checklist and procrastinating packing for the trip to Lake Stevens . This makes me recognize that I have kept myself busy enough over the past 2 weeks that I have not had time to think about the magnitude of the event (70.3) that awaits me. I am going to choose to be open and vulnerable in this Blog to profile an honest journey. When I evaluate my procrastination, I realize that part of it comes from the fact that I am scared. The fear of failure overwhelms my inner thoughts at times, I try to drown out the seeds of doubt, but if I am honest those fears exist! Then there is the fear of the unknown, somewhere I have never been. And even though I have seen others go before me and soar (which has inspired me to want it) it is uncharted territory for me personally, and my inner fears interrupt my positive thoughts. I am aware that once I start packing, for me, that locks me into my race. That is when the anxiety of “what the heck” was I thinking has to stop, with all my strength and determination I push my fears aside and I have to mentally and emotionally proclaim that I am actually doing the race. That is when I start to get nervous and excited, that is when I go into “mode” and I start to focus on the details of what will get me to the race start and across the finish line. That is when I start thinking about all the people pulling for me and how much that means to me, filling my “words of affirmation tank”. And when I am forced to once again look inside for motivation I look for all those reasons that inspired me in the first place. The reasons that drive me to do what it takes on a daily basis to move towards this goal. It is then that I begin to fill my mind with all the reasons that I love Triathlon for what it brings to my life, health and self esteem. That is also when I begin to try and channel that fear into energy that will inspire me and give me the courage I need to drown out the fears and self doubt and get me to the finish line.

Today I received a blessing in the form of a card with words of encouragement and inspiration, that could only come from someone who has gone before me shared the same fears and survived. I will carry that card with me and allow the encouragement feed my soul! Thank you Jessi for the timely card and word of inspiration today, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” –Aniais Nin. And “When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to Fly! –Barbara J. Winter

P.S. If you are free Sunday morning you might try to log onto - (www.ironmanlive.com) – you may be able to follow the race.

P.S. Thank you Kim for the cut and paste lesson and for taking the time in your crazy weekend to get this on the blog.

I look forward to sharing the details of my 1st 70.3 with you.

Love Kathi

Valley Girl Sprint Triathlon

Today was my 2nd Triathlon of this season, which was a sprint distance which is: swim 1/3 mile, bike 12 miles & Run 3 miles. Since my training the past 2 weeks had been geared toward the ½ Ironman next Sunday my coach “Roger” encouraged me to keep in perspective and look at it as more of a good work out, with to possibility that my legs would be tired from the miles I put in the week before. So I went into the race with the primary goal to feel really good about the swim, since I always seem to have some type of anxiety problem during the swim (some of you do not know that prior to last February I did not swim and had issues with being under water), where I panic about something, either seaweed, getting kicked or choking on water. To my pleasure I won 3rd place in my age group! My “high” for the day was coming out of the swim 1st in my age group! My “low” for the day was not being able to take my headphones for the run and having to listen to myself do heavy breathing for 3 miles. My post race “high” was still having a 2 1/2 hour bike to get in and getting to do it with my Tri-sister Jessi!

My First Post!

This is a time of lots of new beginnings. Ironman and blogging! I can't wait to share the adventure with you... here we go!