Back to my 'roots': Skeese Greets

Well this feels to have been a whirlwind of a week. I really feel that I should not say "I'm Busy", because I don't feel terribly stressed out, but I do feel like the weekend has come and gone and I am left wondering where it went. Needless to say, it was a good week and a fun weekend to cap it off.

Last week I would say I was 'introduced' to my first week of 'real' triathlon training in awhile. Sure, I run, swim and bike all the time but I actually did some concerted efforts and stuck to a prescribed schedule. By Friday night, I was feeling it. Just ask Derick. Our game of Frisbee Golf (and riding our commuter bikes to it, which happened to be an hour on commuter bikes) turned into just dinner. I got hungry, tired and oh-SO-grumpy. Once I had some food in my tummy, the world was all good again. :) We had a good evening of eating burgers and drinking some beer at Lamberts, a nice local music restaurant/bar in Austin.

Saturday I did a 'long' ride of 3 hrs 15 minutes with Jen Perez, which was fun. I did however make sure that I was able to sleep in and eat pancakes prior, it seems that Derick and I must have one 'sleep in and make pancakes' day each weekend. We do our best to stick to this routine. We stayed in Saturday night, and watched "Pride and Prejudice"...which I believe was the 2nd time but the first time I dosed the entire time.

Sunday was where I got 'back to my roots'. I did the Skeese Greets Triathlon this morning, which was put on my Stacy Keese, 'founder' of Skeese Greets...'greeting cards for the athletically minded'. This was an all womens triathlon. I knew I could have used a training-only weekend but Jack and Adams does a lot for this community, and I really wanted to go and support Stacy and her event. And, what a cool event it is! This is limited to 500 women, and of course there are probably a handfull of women who are first-timers. While the 5:00 am alarm came too early, I woke up easily (with the sun) and drove out to the race with a friend of mine (who was 'scoping' what this whole triathlon thing is about). The energy there was great, yet also a very chilled out environment. There just was not the 'rush' around this that you typically feel on a race morning. (...men?...) The course was actually the same exact one as The Rookie a week ago, and ...incredible...but I went the same EXACT time as last weekend!! a 48:29 for the 300-swim, 11-mile bike and 2-mile run course. What was very cool was that I was able to go and jog the run course after I finished, just cheering for all the ladies out there. I find nothing more incredible than people not afraid to get out and just try something. My friend Sarah Bannon dropped 4 minutes from her last weeks time! And this was only her second triathlon ever. All ages, all abilities and all backgrounds but one common reason...to participate. Some to compete, some to just finish. I just want to say thanks to J&A's for your endless work, setting up, tearing down and cheering with oodles of energy the entire way...and congratulations to all the women out there who took part. The first step of any journey always the toughest, so if you accomplished your first triathlon today, congrats and welcome aboard!

Oh wait, the roots reference...right. I loved this because a race like this really epitomizes the roots of triathlon. I have done plenty of high-profile races, high-energy, high-intensity, nerves abounding, famous names right and left-races...and those are great, as they push me not only 'to' but often times trying to go 'beyond' my limits. But this is the triathlon of a different sort...good people, good music, good food, and positive energy. No egos, no pushing, no shoving, but everyone doing their thing out there on the race course. Just a bit of advice...amongst your 'race schedule' this year if you have one, throw in a couple of 'just for fun' races! They are good for the mind, body and soul. OK that's all for this Sunday evening...signin' out...