off to Kona!!

Wow, the race I've been anticipating is less than 5 days away. In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane to Kona, Hawaii, looking through the window in disbelief. But it's happening. I've been training since November and I am ready for this. There were times when I just didn't feel like training but I pulled through and now is the weekend we've all been waiting for.

Not only am I looking forward to race weekend, I am super excited about having a 11 day vacation. I havn't had a vacation in over two years so this is a big treat. I'll let you know how it all goes. Wish me luck! I need it.

Hotel we're staying at. Not bad, eh?

Really Late but Really Happy

On Sunday our team did a practice triathlon, which was a 700 meter swim, 20K bike, and a 5K run.

I spent the night before preparing all of my gear and making sure I had everything I needed. I had it all packed, ready to go. Well, so I thought the alarm clock was set to go off at 4:45 am, so that we could get to Fiesta Island by 5:30am. Well, sometimes things don't turn out as planned.

I woke up not knowing what time it was, but felt unusually rested.
"What time is it?" I thought. It's probably 3, so I just need to go back to sleep so I can feel even more rested. Suddenly I hear a beep from Ry's phone.
"What time is it, Ry?" I said. No response. "What time is it?" He looks at the phone, but I hear silence. "What time is it?"
Answer: 6:36

What!!??

The very next second I jumped out of bed, put on my tri clothes that I had set next to my bed. I ran to the bathroom, put on my contacts, and I was ready to go! We literally left the house in less than 3 minutes, put our bikes and stuff in the car and sped. "We're not gonna make it," I thought. But it was worth a try. We pulled up to the transition area. "What? I thought the gun was supposed to go off at 6:45? Coach is gonna kill us," I thought. As we were walking, he points out the LATE people, yes the mentors. So I waved and proceeded to set it up as fast as I think I ever will. I put on my wet suit and ran to the swim start, considering the run my "warm-up."

Considering I had missed the course directions, I had no idea where we were going, but I just thought I would follow everyone. I started the swim and oh man, the water was disgusting! Brown and fishy and stinky. EEEEEEwwww!!
"I'm gonna throw up," I thought. No, you gotta make it through this. Just keep your head in the water and don't think about it. So I kept on stroking as soft, jelly like objects swept my hand. AH! Those were the jellyfish I heard Coach mention right before we went in the water. Every other stroke I took, I felt another jellyfish. Gross!
So I finally got out of the disgusting water without puking (amazingly). My time was 9 min. 30 sec.

I got to the transition area, got my wet suit off rather quickly (2min 30 sec) and got on my bike. The taste in my mouth was still the gross fishy dirt water. I was about halfway on my first loop when I passed Susan. "How many loops are we doing?" I asked. "Three," she said. I'm ashamed to say I had no idea and admittedly, I usually am horrible at knowing our workout.


Now, I felt GOOD on the bike. I was cruisin. I was going at least 19mph the whole time and my legs felt strong as ever and I was passing people like crazy. I mean I passed Susan (she's fast!) and Coleen (she got first place in girls) and a few others. Then all of a sudden Jason comes behind me and passes me. I was still keeping my speed and passed him. He passed me again. We were having a friendly race. Finally I let him go ahead and stayed about 20 seconds behind him.

I got off the bike, did my quickest T2 time ever (57 seconds) and got on the run. I even beat Jason out on the run. Of course I knew he was a much faster runner than me and that he would pass me anyway. As always, my legs felt like bricks in the first part of the run. We had done this race before and the run had started in a different spot so this felt so much longer to me. As I was runnin, I had no idea where I stood in the race. I thought there were tons of people ahead of me. The run was an out and back so you could see the people coming back who were in front of you.

On the run out, Jason passed me as expected. Then Coleen came and passed me. She's a strong runner. So then I saw Ginger on her way back from the run turn around. Now, Ginger kicks ass. She's a strong athlete so I was shocked to see how close I was behind her. WOW! I was shocked, but very happy and encouraged inside. I couldn't believe how far in front I was. I remembered what I've heard some pro triathletes say: not to worry about others, but to focus on giving all you have. That's what I did the whole time. "Wow, I guess that paid off," I thought.

On the run out, I could see all the people coming back from the run turn around. Nuno, Ryan right behind him, then Lamine, Paul, Troy (who had bit one of the jellyfish, Greg Kurras, Brian, Pat (basically all the fast guys). Then I saw Ginger and Colleen. "Am I the third girl from the front?"
I was! I felt actually pretty strong on the run. I had a pretty good pace and felt good on nutrition. It was cool to see everyone on my run back. There was a lot of encouragement and GO TEAMs!

Although the run seemed really long, I made it to the FINISH LINE!!!

1 Hour---19 Minutes---9 Seconds

14th out of 67 people

3rd girl out of 43
I've gotta say, this is a GOOD feeling. I also gotta say that I am much better at these shorter events. I don't think my body does as well with longer distances, which require a lot of endurance.

Ocean Swim route

On Sunday, we swam to the 3/4 mile buoy and back. The water was actually really nice, not too many waves. It was a beautiful, hot day. It was hard to get into my rhythm, but regardless, I swam probably over 1 1/2 miles, since I'm sure I didn't swim in a straight line.

Here's a picture and route of what I swam, from La Jolla Shores to (almost) the cove.

This was from a teammate's GPS watch.

The REAL WORLD Kona

Ok, so I’m getting extra excited for Hawaii.

Reasons why:

1. I need a vacation
2. I really need a vacation
3. It’s gonna be beautiful
4. I will be done with training
5. I’ll be part of The Real World Kona


It is number 5 that I’ve been most excited about recently. Yes, about 10-15 people on our team are renting a house in Hawaii and making it a Real World house, filled with good times. Now this is exciting, not only because it’s in Hawaii, but it’s with our teammates and the house is right on the ocean.

We met on Sunday at Jen’s house to discuss our time in the house. And oh man, I am excited. Jen’s gonna cook (and she can cook!) and we’re gonna have a victory party there with the team. We’re also gonna have Real World T-shirts and Hawaiian names.

Now, this is also pretty exciting to me because I never really did the “Spring Break” thing in college so this will be a nice “we think we’re still in college” experience. And I’m excited about it. The people we’re sharing the house with are all really cool and I can sense that it will be a great time.

So far we have the following Hawaiian names. The rest are being figured out.

Amanda: Imi Hana (means to stir up trouble)
Paul (not the coach, the other one): Alekanekelo (means protector)
Lisa: lay ah (means Mythological goddess of canoe builders)
Jaybuddy: lolo (means crazy)
Ryan: Wikiwiki (means fast)
Me: `aka`aka (means laugh)

More names and details to come from the Real World Kona crew.

Logo courtesy of Amanda, I mean Imi Hana. We're all gonna have green or blue t-shirts with the design. It's official.

Why do I do it??

This was a poem my teammate Ginger shared this Saturday at our Mission Moment:

Why I Compete with TNT

Why do you do it

(Train, Fundraise, Compete)?

I do it for those who can’t.
I do it for those who told me I can’t.
I do it for those who think they can’t.
I do it for those who won’t.
I do it for the little part of my brain that says “you won’t go through with it.”
I do it for me.
I do it for time, distance and speed.

I do it because when the challenge ever arises I will meet it, complete it and smile.
I do it for the hills I never thought I could climb.
I do it for my teammates at the finish line.
I do it for my finisher’s pin that I wear with pride.
I do it for the mission moments.
I do if for the Honored Teammates.
I do it for the Honored Angels.

I do it because it makes me a better person.
I do it because there is no greater competitor then you except for maybe your watch.
I do it because I love the rain, sunshine, roads, woods, and ocean.
I do it because it makes me feel better.
I do it because it puts us one step closer to a cure.
I do it because it puts me to sleep at night.
I do it for the adrenaline rush before a race.

I do it for the last ten seconds of the race.
I do it to push my body to the limit and watch it deal.
I do it for the little kid in the back of my head telling him/her “No we are not there yet.”
Why not?
I do it to push my body to the limit, wait what limit.
I do it because my body yells “stop”, my mind screams “pain”, and my soul says “keep going”.
I do it to find the place where I hit a brick wall and then break through.
I do it for when my mind and body thank me it is over and my soul tells them that was just the end of the beginning.
I do it…


No one ever works out or donates their time and money and regrets it. You never go for a run, bike, or swim and when you’re finished wish you would have just stayed home. You never climb a mountain and reach the top saying, “I should’ve been content to stay where I was.”

This is for all the times people ask you why you compete, train, and fundraise and your innate response is “I just do.”

what a training weekend!

These were all the teammates who did the 10k on Sunday. Can you find me?

This weekend was the epitome of a training weekend. We had a tough bike workout on Saturday morning. The winds were so strong that the ride was even harder than I had anticipated. It was about a 30 mile ride, but it was mostly hills! Going up hills is obviously harder with the wind, so needless to say, it was a tough workout.

Sunday morning I did a 10K in Rancho Bernardo. I was really nervous about it because I haven't really ran more than four miles lately. Plus, this is considered one of the most challenging 10ks because it has a lot of hills. I told myself I would treat it as a training run. When I got to the race, I was excited to see my friend Dana, who I trained with for Pacific Grove triathlon. I asked her if she was planning to race or not, and she assured me she wouldn't go fast. I took her word and we ran together. This was really nice. She's a very good runner. She holds her pace down very well and helps me to remember to breath. So we ran almost the entire 6.2 miles together, minus the last half a mile, where I kinda took off. She was only a minute behind me.

My final time was 1:05:31. The last 10K I did, I had a 55:58, but that was a completely different race, mostly flat and downhill at the end.

At the race, my knees were hurting quite a bit. I had also forgotten to take an energy gel before, as I had planned, so I was feeling the lack of fuel by mile 4. Thanks to Dana and the beautiful course, I made it to the end.

About four hours after the race, we had our ocean swim at La Jolla Shores. I knew I had to go, since I've been missing the swims a lot lately. The water was cold, but calm as ever. It was clear too, where we could see the ocean floor. I practiced drafting with a couple of teammates. Drafting in the swim helps me swim without exerting as much energy.

After the workout, I was starving so we went out to Mexican food with some teammates. We then went to the Jacuzzi and hit the hay at 9pm. I slept soo well. I was tired from all those hills!

What a great workout weekend!