This blog is about the Enduramoms of the world, more so than me. My job here is researcher, cheerleader, reporter, and well, being one too. Anyways, here's a little info on how I accidentally became a triathlete.
I'm one of many that grew up watching THE Ironman World Championship on NBC each and every fall ... since I was about 11-ish, by my memory, at least (caution! I can give you a 2 hour speech on why the Ironman is so amazing at the drop of a hat). I grew up loving the 3 disciplines naturally (swimming, biking, and running) as hobbies or normal workouts, but I never thought I'd actually ever do a TRI until I got an opportunity to volunteer for the now defunct Duke Iron Devil race, circa 2003-04. I was only registered to volunteer for the early morning portion of the race, but ended up staying to see the last runner come in around midnight--he was over 70 years old. I lost my voice that day from talking and cheering incessantly, but gained OH so much more. The strength and focus of the varied race participants lit a fire in me to get off the sidelines and into the race. I was befriended by a fellow volunteer (one I refer to as an earth angel) at this particular race who turned out to be super inspirational--she encouraged me--who me?-- yes, to train and just do a triathlon...(it honestly never occurred to me that I would ever participate in a TRI or Ironman at that point in my life). I was under the ridiculous impression that I needed to show up for training already in perfect shape. We talked for hours that day. Prior to this event, I thought all runners had to be short, under 90 lbs, and crazy driven people (well, I was partly right heehee). Wrong. My running had/has never been "great", as an adult, so I knew my first step was to sign up for a ‘Women's Learn to Run a 5K in 10 Weeks' workshop sponsored by North Carolina RoadRunners. Ten weeks later I completed the workshop, the 5K goal race, and loved the whole experience! The program integrated training with weekly workshops on nutrition and sports, tons of support, and I survived training runs in 90%+ humidity that fall. It was an amazing sense of accomplishment and a turning point in my life. Did I win my big 5K race? Of course not, but I wasn't last and I finished. Those were my goals. I began following a triathlon training plan shortly thereafter with a free plan from BeginnerTriathlete.com. Along came my firsts child a few years thereafter and I had to get really creative with how and when I trained.
So… that’s my story. I want to be a guide to usher others into the sport of triathlon and endurance running. It's more challenging to get the job done when you have children, but it is not impossible. We just have to get more creative and utilize our friend/family networks. Not only does the sport build better Enduramoms, it builds us into tough as nails role models. Good health habits have a way of spilling over to all we know. Often our children swim, bike, or run with us.
Let the Enduramom REVOLUTION begin.
