Olympics, here I.....

There is a lot to be said about Olympic athletes. They are super human. I really don't think they lead normal lives. Where do they find time to train? They are simply amazing. Well, to kick off the Olympics in the Afualo household I decided to race in another triathlon. Actually my sister decided for me. I thought it would be fun, but didn't realize at the time of sign ups that the race was only 10 days after we got home from our vacation. Well as you can guess I thought I would spend those 10 days training hard for that race. NOPE! I was to busy trying to recover from our trip and get life back together. I am not super woman. I don't pretend to be anything more than normal. So 5 days before the race I decided I better get serious again. I spent those days trying to get my body not only adjusted to running again, but running after biking 18 miles. My legs were apparently still on vacation.

The morning of August 9th rolled around much faster than I had wanted it and after a night of little sleep and terrifying nightmares of sharks, fish and forgetting my registration I got dressed, grabbed my gear and woke Damon up so there would be someone to drag my mangled body back home after it was found in the ocean or on the side of the road.

After setting up my gear in the transition area I found my sister and brother-in-law as we listened to our pre-race pep talk. Then we headed for the beach. I looked up to Damon one more time to send him a final goodbye wave, just in case it would be our last. He couldn't tell it was me, but I hoped that he knew how much I loved him.

As we waited on the beach for our start time which was 8:47am we watched male swimmer after male swimmer being pulled out by the life guards. I kept thinking, "If these guys can't make it, what am I going to do." By this time my nerves were shot and I seriously thought I was going to lose what little food I had in my stomach. As they called my wave to get set I zipped up the rest of my wet suit, suctioned my goggles to my eyeballs and put my blue swim cap on. Then the adrenaline kicked in. The shot gun sounded and I was off, heading towards the water where 3 months earlier another triathlete was eaten by a great white shark. I was OK for the first few waves where I was still taller than them. As soon as the water got to deep I had to start swimming. Then when the first big wave hit me and I got my first mouthful of salt water and was pummeled by yet another wave I thought, "Why am I doing this? This is so not worth it." I was tempted to swim over to the life guard boat and order them to take me to shore. I knew my sister would never let me live it down so I kept swimming and swimming and swimming. When I finally looked up in front of my I realized I was still in the front of the pack. That made me keep going. As a swimmer I was trained to keep my eyes open underwater, but even when you are wearing goggles in the SoCal Pacific Ocean you still can't see anything in front of you.

I finally made it back to shore got changed into my bike gear and was headed off into the canyon for my 18 mile ride. There were no mile markers and I forgot to put my watch on so I had no idea where I was, what time it was or how far I had left. Some where after the halfway point I hit this big hill and I had my bike in low gear and I still felt like I wasn't moving at all. I finally got off my bike and walked it up the rest of the hill. I didn't even care about how silly I looked. I got back on my bike and finished the ride with little enthusiasm. I felt some since of pride because I passed some people so I knew I wouldn't finish last.

The run was easy because it was a short distance, but it was hard because my legs didn't have much left in them. At the last quarter mile of the 3.1 mile run I was met by about 8 marines stationed at Camp Pendleton to help push me through the finish. I actually sprinted through the finish line. It took 2 hours and 21 minutes to finish this race. Some actually did it in 1 hour and 11 minutes. I like to call them overachievers.

When all is said and done I have learned some lessons. 1) you need to train a little bit more seriously if you want to do well 2)quiting is never an option in my family 3)it is wonderful to have a husband who will push your bike back to the car after your race 4) over indulging in milkshakes and french toast from Denny's after any race is well worth the effort 5) I will never be an Olympic athlete and I think I am glad about that.