The woman who starts the race is not the same woman who finishes the race.

This is Danskin's motto so to speak, at least for their tri's :) The woman who starts the race is not the same woman who finishes the race, and it has been true for me every Danskin race and every triathlon that I have raced for that factor I have found something new inside of me, realized something new, figured something new out, realized how amazing God is while running or realized how lucky I am to be able to run.

But this post is not about me, one of my friends, if you have been reading my blog, was diagnoised with Cancer, a while ago, and Amber and I both did our Danskin race in honor of her, because she couldn't be there, even though I know she would have loved to be, she wasn't able to.

However, today is her last day of Chemo before she takes a trip to Mayo to get some test results and Amber and I were trying to think of ways to encourage her, and support her in her journey, and Amber came up with the most amazing idea ever!!!

A - Do you think Danskin would send us a finishers medal for Brittney?
L - I dunno but it couldn't hurt to ask, what's the worst thing they could say, no?
A - Yeah, I should send an email, but it would have to get here by Wednesday (it was already Sunday night)
L - Yeah but try it!

So we looked up two addresses on Danskin's website, and we sent it to both, a PR address and a Triathlon website, and on Monday, Amber got a response back! WHAT???

Danskin - we would lOVE to send you a finishers medal and shirt!! - we will fedex it!

WHAT?!?!??! unbelivable!! Not only were they sending us a medal but also a shirt, how sweet, and then we got the package, and we not only got a shirt, and a medal, but they also sent a swim cap!! and a 2007 Danskin Program!! and a In honor of Bib Number thingy!!! HOW AMAZING!!! again I cannot express in words how Danskin rocks my socks off!!!

Although Brittney has not raced a Danskin Triathlon she has raced her own race against cancer, and no matter what, she too is not the same women who started the race! Brittney's charachter and love and patience and determination with everything that she has gone thru has been an amazing thing to watch. Her passion to continue to reach out even if she doesn't feel well still amazes me, and she is an amazing child of God who shows her love to numerous people around her, It is totally my honor and Amber's honor and I am sure Danskin's to give her a Finisher's medal, even though she might not of been able to be there to race with us, she was most defintily there with us in heart! and I am proud to race for her.

Danskin Pics!!!

I actually like most of my Danskin pics! :) well except for my swim, I like the pic.. except for the fact that my arm is in front of my face :)

Pics for you to enjoy...

Danskin Cont...

Okay :) So on Sunday Morning I got up around 4:00 AM, changed into my tri outfit for the day, and tried not to wake the others up around me in the room, I like to have a a little me time before the big day! I am such a person who needs their own time by themselves to be sane.

So then around 4:20 or so Amber got up and started getting ready, and then after I packed all my stuff, and started making oatmeal I woke my mom up around 4:40 I wanted to let my parents sleep in as late as possible. As I sat and ate my oatmeal I thought of all my I am statements and visulized the rest of the day, I wasn't to nervous just excited to get started!

We were all packed up and ready to go around 5:00 as we headed to the tri site, traffic was slow but most of the roads for the triathlon had already been closed. My dad thankfully dropped us off as close as possible, which was a great location! Thanks Dad! We walked in to the transition area with our gear in preperation for setting up our stuff and getting ready for teh race..

The transition area was a DISASTER!!! Okay. so in a transition area, you have racks and on every rack there is a two posts or rather legs every so often, you are only supposed to put 7-8 bikes per rack. But on our racks, because we got some premo bike parking earlier on Saturday everyone else tried to do so as well, my rack had 13 bikes or more!! Craziness! becuase in order to run a tri you need to set your gear down, and what you do is you lay down a small towel, like a hand towel and set all your gear on it, so that means there should be that much space in between each bike.. HAH!! Not even close, I was wondering how any bikes were even going to get out of the transition area let alone set up gear, there were bikes hitting chains, handle bars running into spokes.. oooh it looked YUCKY!!

But on the plus side, since we got there early.. no one was tehre form our waves yet, so we set up our gear, and found out a girl who had parked her bike on the wrong rack moved it, so Amber took her spot and moved her bike to a much much better location, at least she would be able to get out!

We set up gear, and then took turns taking our bikes out for a spin to make sure everything was working right, everything looked good, everything was functioning including ourselves :) and all was a go! We came back and chilled in the transition area for some time, thinking thru our game plans and getting ready :) Some people came and had the same view of the transition area as I did.. YUCK! some people moved their bikes, some people set up transition on the grass.. it was crazzzy! but I was happy because i knew that we had good transition areas set up, and were set :)

One of the things that I really wanted to do for this tri was to honor a friend who I asked earlier in the year to do a triathlon, and she really wanted to and it turned out stuff came up and she couldn't train for it. So as we were sitting in transition several people were marking their bodys up with in honor of or in memory of, I wanted to do this to honor her as well, so I asked Amber if she would be in, we borrowed a marker, and Wrote, on our shoulder for all to see, IN Honor of Britt! I wanted to do this not just for me, but for someone who coudln't but i know she would be here if she could. Even if she couldn't run it for her self, she would be with us throught the race :) which I thought was soo cool!

At 6:50 or so they kicked us out of transition area and started to close it down and we made our way to the swim area. Which was about a 1/2 mile away. There were thousand of women and some fans walking the path to the beach. we watched the first waves go off and found a great spot under a shaded tree.. it was HOT HOT HOT...

When we stepped out of the car at 5:15 or so, it was already 79 degrees.. yuck!!! It was only getting hotter. I was alittel worried about the heat but was trying not to think about it. Our waves were scheduled to start around 8:30 or so, so we hung around and talked, and chatted with a few other triathletes, some veterans, some first timers.

Around 8:00 or so I got into the water... OOOOOOH it was cooooold... but it felt goood to be out of the heat, I took a short swim, still a ltitel worried about my breathing, I still have this cough, and it doesn't work so well with breathing under water with my normal breathing, it was probably going to be an issue, but i still felt i would be okay just taking more breathing breaks.

Shortly after that we lined up! oooh now this is when I start to get a ltitle nervous! Amber was a wave behind me, but we chatted for a bit before we got seperated, and off to the water I went! oooh it still felt good since it was HOT out, I was ready, they were giving final instructions, encouragement, and the all important word for the day!! Our word for the day was SIZZZLING!!! I had to laugh, becuase I would definitly be sizzling by the end of the day, what a great word for a hot day.

Shortly after the prep, they sent us on our way, okay I waited a few seconds, letting a few go, and then I went, I don't like to get kicked, even though I am a strong swimmer, it's just kind of nicer to let a few get out of your way before you go. I remember the girl who i lined up with mentioning she was a strong swimmer so all was well :) As we began swimming, I tried to stay with my normal 5 - 6 strokes, but breathing was not the best, so I had to go down to 3-4, and some times 2, which I am sure added to my time, but it's okay I knew that it was going to be an issue. I kept swimming, all was well I was swimming just slightly to the left of the right bouy, which was perfect, and it meant I wasn't swimming more than the distance I needed to swim.

At some point I came close to a dock and there were lifegards flailing fun noodles, like their octopus wings or something :) They were hadning them out over half way thru the swim to anyone who wanted them and of course they were also cheering us on. I continuted to swim, checking my watch occasionally to see the time, I was doing okay. and soon enough I came to the person who I started the race with, I was like sweet! I was passing other color caps which is always good, as long as your not getting passed by other color caps. I could see the shore in my sights, it was not far off.

My arms sort of started to hurt a ltitle bit, but i kept thinking I don't need them for any other part of the triathlon they will be fine, keep going!!! I finally made it to the sand and ran up it to transition :) - Once again, do not count my parents for pictures :)

Then in transition I quickly washed off my feet from the sand, thru on my shoes, and off I went, transition time one was pretty fast all was well, and then.... the heat oooh it started to hit me, I was drying off to quickly, I was getting hot hot hot, but I was still biking. I made it up the first small hill down the next turned the coner off I went, the goal to stay above 15 at all times, which didn't seem to be to big of a problem, except on hills, most of the time I was cruising around 26 or so... it was great, a few pwople were passing me but I was passing more, on Mile 2 they had a mile marker, and it said mile 2, For those who can't, the only other mile marker I remember reading was mile 10 and it said Mile 2, bye bye monkeys.

I was just oging by the others to fast to read them, or rmemeber them I guess, I was passing people all was well. Until... I hit mile 6 or 7.. and the WIND!! The wind was around 16 -20 mph that day and now we were facing a dead on head wind.. and going up a hill EEEEK!!! thankfully I was able to keep my speed above 10 and most of the tmie above 12 but the wind defintily slowed me down. Around mile 8 there was a cop speed thingy, you know one of those things that shows you your speed they still had it up, and at that time I happened to be going 15 MPH according to that sign :) quite accurate with my cyclometer :)

I don't remember much of the other miles except pouring lots and lots of water over my head and it was water that wasn't even that cold, I froze it the night before but it had unthaughed and heated up since I got to the race, it was sometimes cold sometimes warm, but kept me cooler, i had to get cooled down.. I don't do good in heat. i think it's in my genes, my mom never did very well with heat, nor did my grandma.

When we hit the entry way to the park I had less than a mile left, but was cruzing good, smiled at the crowed, enjoyed my race, listened for my mom to yell GO LeSLIE! :) as she always does :) when i stopped my bike, and started walking I almost fell my legs wern't working quite right but I knew I would get them back soon! :)

I went into transition and changed shoes, put on socks, grabbed my visor, and off I went.. Last year there was a water station before you hit mile 1, I was expecting it, I thought I could run until then, I started running, and I was soo hot, I wanted to vomit! But I kept going, running and then some walking, passing a few, while being passed by a lot but kept going. When we got to where I thought there would be water.. there was no watter :(!!!! WHERE IS THE WATER?!?!?

Then a volunteer came by and said the water is just up ahead, oh brother! Off to running and walking again I went, mostly walking by this time, I was just to hot, and I wanted to finish, When we hit the water... ooooh heaven!!! the firefighters had sprung to open the fire hydrants and sprayed ice cold water on us, hte jelly belly people handed out sport beans, and the spraying continuted!!! oooh thank you!!

I ran pretty much the entire rest of the way, I was cooled off enough now that my body was like okay.. cool you can run now, no problem! and off I went. It was great, and now I only had a mile left. As I came up to the finish line there were so many people who gave me high fives and said you go girl.

As I crossed the finish line I had a huge smile and a sense of accomplishment, I even heard them announce my name and then awarded my medal, and then... I kind of felt like I was going to pass out, so I got kind of dizzy so the firefighters had me sit down in their little medical tent, and take my pulse, as they slapped a cold towel on my back, ohhhh it felt so great! I slowly regained my mental status, of ohh yeah.. I was just way to overheated, and probably pushed alittle more the last mile than I should have, but I wanted to finish in a certain time and new it was coming close.

My mom came in to check on me but soon enough I was good to go, and I waited for Amber to cross. The day was a success.. my swim time was 15:24 with a ranking of 674 out of 3939 which is awesome, I am totally okay with that! :) the swim was also really wavy because of the wind, so I'll take it!

My bike time was 45:10 with a bike rank of 1144 and i'll take that too! :) I was cruising on my bike, I really like biking, and I am offically started a new bike fund, yes my 5 dollar garage sale bike has done me well, but to get much faster, I am gonna have to get a newer bike and I am oaky with that, but I'll be saving for a while :)

My run time was 46:50 with a ranking of 3361 yuck! Ehh okay so it could have been better, but I guess considering my health, and that I don't do well in heat, and I am very lucky that I can run at all.. I'll take that :) I am happy to finish, but I also know that running is something that I will be working on a LOOOOOT! in the next months to come, maybe I will come to like it more, currently, I am not such a fan, but I know that I used to really like it :) I think that was before i hurt my knee, so we'll see what happens.

so overall I finished 2060/3939 I am totally cool with that!!! :) I finished in 1:53:20 I am okay wtih that too!! :) I had a lot of fun, and can't wait to do another, I only wished that I had more planned, but I am pretty sure I am looking for one to do in late august or september, so we'll see where that goes. :)

Danskin Triathlon!

Oh how I love thee! the Danskin was this past weekend and the Danskin triathlon rocks my socks off! :) This is where I fell in love with triathlon's this is what got my heart into it, this is what made me want to do more, to accomplish more, and this weekend it once again touched my heart and made me want to come back and achieve more than I ever have.

The Danskin is an all women's event and the proceeds of this event go to support Breast Cancer. The Danskin is the greatest and far best begginers triathlon for any female! It's SOOOO worth the drive and it's such an amazing event.

This year I got to take my friend Amber with me to do her first triathlon, and I was excited to introduce another friend to the sport :)

I am going to break these posts up into a few different ones because there is just sooo much to tell ya! :)

We left on Friday afternoon, we meet my parents in Waterloo, THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN mom and dad for coming with! you are the greatest!! and I was very thankful my mom got to come as well. We spent most of Friday making our way up to Kenosha WI, definitly taking the senic route, but enjoying the day, having a fun time as we drove. We stopped in Galena IL on our way up to do some sight seeing and walk around the town, my mom really wanted to enjoy some history, and it was a fun stop :) Amber enjoyed guessing what each building was before we walked into it, we found a couple shops, one old theather that had been turned into a craft store, and then another old bank that had been turned into a quilting store, the old bank even had the vault still in it, it was kind of fun to see :)

We also stopped at a couple other places along the way, including a few farmers markets for fresh fruits and veggies, and amazing dried beef, and mmm delicious pickles! I basically slepped the entire trip in the back seat and awoke only when we stopped, otherwise I get kind of car sick, but I was okay.

By 9:00 we made it to Kenosha!! :) yay!! We pulled up to the hotel that I had made soem reservations at and then cancelled some becuause I had made them way back in January and thought that there might be a few more people coming with us, but when we got inside, the hotel didn't cancel them, I had to laugh, they weren't having a very good night at the hotel, and so they fixed our room and sent us on our way, but then when we got to our room we discovered it was the wrong room! So back to the front desk we went, and had to get it straigthend out but eventually we did so, and all was well :) I guess it was a good thing they forgot to cancel my second room otherwise we would have the wrong room anyway :) After supper we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel which wasn't to far from our hotel, it was pretty good.

We came back to the hotel and everyone crashed except me, I went to the hot tub for a while to relax and vizulize my tri goals for the week. One of my books that I read said it was a really good thing to do, and that even if you don't belive it, it's still a good thing to do, as saying I am statements, makes you believe it or something I dunno, So I try to come up with an I am statement for each part of the triathlon. It worked great for the subaru, so why not give it another tri!

Then I headed up and back to bed! On saturday we didn't even have to get up to early, how wonderful! We got up around 9 went down and had breakfast, and then headed off to rack our bikes and pick up our registration materials :)

We arrived at the Expo around 10:00 Perfect timing! We quickly got into lines to get our bikes checked out by the bike experts, they are great!! Another reason why Danskin rocks my socks off! they have free bike experts that make sure everything is working right, and all your stuff looks good and such, I had a break that wasn't working quite right, and the guy fixed it perfectly, it looks sooo nice now!! THANKS REI!!! :) I think Amber had a back wheel that needed a new bearing so that it would roll straight and she got that fixed too.. :) REI is amazing once again :)

Then we went in and I picked up my registration packet :) I was in wave number 24 and I had a red swim cap! Amber was in wave number 25 and had a pick swim cap. However, that also meant that we would not be hitting the water till 8:28 and 8:32 and that was if everything was on time! EEK!

After we got our packets we sat down and listened to the course talk, which talked about the course, the guy prepared us telling us that it was supposed to be the hottest day of the year, with high winds! OOOH JOY! They were really worried about people getting heat exhaustion and heat stroke, adn I even started to worry, as I knew that I didn't do good in the heat... yuck! and the winds worried me on the bike as well. They also informed us that there was no shade on the run or the bike course! YUCK! but it was good to be informed.

After the course talk, Sally Edwards, who has won several iron mans and is the Danskin official spokesperson got up and gave us the first timers talk! :) I heard it last year, but I wanted Amber tohear it this year, it's a great talk, and I think this is another great thing about Danskin, this is one thing they really do to prepare you, get you pumped up and get ready to go, they prepare you to succeed!

Sally Edwards, started by having us all stand up :) And gave us the speach :) "Since this is an all women's triathlon we and we are WOMEN! we do things DIFFERENTLY!! we will build each other up! and have fun, and because we do things differently, we have a cheer, I want you to turn to each other and give a double high five and say YOU GO GIRLFRIEND!!" and then everyone does it, it still makes me smile, seeing hundreds of women united encouraging one another. :) Then, she says "and tommrow you will have a special word, (she turns to this other girl and says what is there speacial word and she comes back with FENOMINAL) okay.. The head angel says your word is FENOMINAL! So let's practice you put your arms up liek your swimming and say I AM A FENOMINAL SWIMMER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL BIKER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL RUNNER!! then I AM A FENOMINAL TRIATHLETE!!" then we all sit down :) every wave gets there own little word but ti reminds me of my vizulization techinicque :) I am..

Then she goes on to talk about what to expect, they talk about the swim angels, they talk about the bike, they talk about transition, she talks about things that can save you time, things that every beginner needs to know, and she talks about the most important thing... "Are you worried about being last?" You can't be!! Sally is last!! that's right, So they practice Sally going out and getting the final finisher :) and then they send us on our way :)

Amber and I then went and picked up our goodie bags :) Lots of good stuff of course, our free t-shirts and all sorts of other goodies from their sponsors. After all of that, we then had rack our bikes, which the bike racks were VERY crowded but we found some okay spots, by the bike out which was a good spot to be in, and it was easy to find, right behind the port o pottys! :) and then we got body marked as well.

After we racked our bikes we drove the bike course so we could see the hills and know where we were turning and such, even though they have plenty of volunteers on the course, it's really nice to know when your going to have to climb a hill and such. On the way back to the end of the bike was the Jelly Belly Factory, and we made a pitt stop, we ended up going in for a tour :) we even got free Jelly Belly's mmmm

My dad however suggested that we NOT make the pittstop during the race :) It was fairly close to the end of the route. I guess it would be one way to remember you were almost there :)

Then we went to supper and then to the grocery store for some breakfast items. My dad however pushed a cart into a cart bin, and a gentleman at the store, seemed to be very upset by this, he came running at our car, and then started SCREAMING at my dad who just rolled up his window and as we went to drive off, the guy stood infront of our car, so we couldn't get past him, It was kind of weird, but also scary! so then we started backing up, and then cars were coming into the parking lot so we couldn't back up and as we backed up the guy backed up with us.. freeky! Then we finally backed up just enough to make a sharp turn, ny dad pulls a quick U and jets out, whew! the guy was seriously angered by the cart! And then mom says, can't your dad do anything without getting into trouble, and I just had to laugh.

We went back to the hotel around 6, and Amber and I went to the pool for a little bit, so I could teach her how to put on a swim cap :) And then I think I went to bed around 7 or so, after all I had to get up at 4! :) My mom joined me by going to bed around the same time, both her and I could almost sleep anytime any where! :)

Subaru Triathalon Pics!

As promised :) some pics from the Subaru triathlon :)

Still reflecting back, especially after runing the danskin this weekend, the Subaru tempature was perfect! I thought it was hot, but no it was perfect, cloudy sky's, mid 70's BEAUTIFUL and slightly windy. :)