I'M ALiiiiiiiiVE!!!

Friends & family -

You can safely assume that since I'm writing this blog I am, in fact, alive. I survived my first(!) ocean race sans a thunderstorm thank the Lord. Nor was I attacked by sharks, jellyfish or large tangled piles of seaweed. With a full-length wetsuit & neoprene cap, the water temperature was actually pretty bearable. All sounds pretty successful, right? WRONG.

I was very concerned about everything except for my actual ability to swim. If you have a grandmother, or know any grandmother actually, & you asked her to swim 1000 meters, she would have beat me. My "swimming" more closely resembled a person trying really really hard not to drown. There were a few lifeguards out in the water monitoring the swimmers, & I'm pretty sure all of them were thinking "is she ok? is there a new swimming stroke we're unaware of? do we help this sad non-swimmer swimmer & drag her to shore to save her dignity & possibly her life??".

I'm not exaggerating. That's what they were thinking. I could clearly see the pity in their eyes even from my super sexy fogged-up goggles*.

I guess the point is, is that I did it at all right? I keep telling my ego that. My new friend Amy said it best: we're starting with our bar very low (I speak for myself, she's actually quite decent) & we can only improve from here on (unless I drown or get eaten by a shark).

What the most awesome thing about all of this is the people. Well actually... also challenging myself. But let's get back to the people. Everyone is so great! And helpful! I feel so blessed to be in such a great community of people committed to athleticism and positivity. Everyone is so willing to share their knowledge & tips and offer words of encouragement. Some even have gone so far as to offer to train with me (probably a nice warm-down for them). Even though I was feeling pretty down about how awful I did, I had so many people say how great I did, that I'll get better in no time, etc etc. By the way... this is one of the rare times in life I don't mind people lying straight to my face.

Even though my water talents are less than adequate, I'm fully committed to racing every week. I will definitely need to increase the amount of days I train but I'm determined to be more like Michael Phelps and less like Kate Winslet in Titanic.

Will keep you posted on my progress (which will not be happening this weekend)! Also please don't show up to any of my races until I get a lot better :)

Off to STAGECOACH, Y'ALL!!!


<3, E


*Goggles, full-length wetsuit AND neoprene cap??? I bet you have an awesome visual. ~I don't think you're ready for this jelly~

Back For Good?

Yup. Back on the air. Back in business. Back back back.

I'm hoping that since I'm starting on a whole new journey I'll feel motivated to track my progress on a more or semi-regular basis. My last catalyst was tracking the joys of "fun"employment and now it's about the opposite. This is more about taming (or failing to tame) my wild ambition to accomplish a laundry list of goals, & then some goals on top on that.

I'm starting by making this my haphazard newb guide to "Signing Up for a Triathlon & Sticking to it Whether You Can Do It Or Not". Coming to a Barnes & Noble near you. #overlyambitious #whatwasithinking #stubbongermangenes

Since starting this journey I've picked many brains (thank you to my self-nominated mentors!) & Googled countless searches for guidance on what equipment to buy, the best way to train, etc. I may even have to consult a loan officer before this is over. So I have the equipment, have started to train... slowly & sporadically. I have yet to get in the water but like so many other decisions I make in life, I'm going to wait for the worst timing possible & just go for it without too much thought. Why change now?

In less than 2 days I'm going to jump straight into the freezing cold ocean, in a (possible) thunderstorm, with my way-too-tight wetsuit, with sharks *(there was one around here a week ago that killed a pregnant sea lion that my family made sure to mention to me multiple times & therefore when I say "sharks" I'm completely validated), and with having zero ocean swimming experience. What's the worst that could happen. I'M SO EXCITED!!

I can-not wait to report back on how this goes. This blog that will one day be made into a bestseller might actually be in the tragedy Comedy section instead of the Motivation/How-To section like I planned.

On a brighter note, not too worried about the running & biking parts #massivecalves. If there is any major worry it's not to eat s**t on my bike. Considering the amount of spasticness I possess, that's actually a pretty legit concern. Alright... keeping it short (by my standards) & sweet, & leaving you with the cliffhanger of whether there will be a blog post Wed/Thurs or not. *Disclaimer: I'm leaving for Stagecoach (woot!!) on Thursday so I may be too distracted to blog by thoughts of cowboys country music.

<3 E

*Tangent