“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

By: Rachel

Well, here I go, writing a blog and opening myself up to the whole world. This is unusual for me as I tend to keep my feelings close to myself. Yes, as most of you know I am quite the Facebooker but you if have noticed a lot of it is surface level thoughts or feelings. If you know me well enough then I’m sure you can read in to some of the status updates I have.



To give you some background about myself, I used to live in Spokane, WA. It was there that I saw my very first Ironman – 2004 CDA Ironman. I will never forget seeing the athletes come across the finish line and I was so moved (I’m a mush) by what I was seeing I stayed till about midnight and watched the last finishers come across the line. Watching this was the most motivating, inspiring thing I had ever seen. See, I didn’t participate in sports during K-12 (ask me another time) and figured I had lost my opportunity to be involved in something I loved, sports.



That night, watching the Ironman, I realized those were adults coming across the finish line and upon further research (google) I learned that they were all adults. Hmmm, I thought. I can do this, I can be an Ironman someday. I mentioned this to a couple of people later and was greeted with laughter and “yeah right” phrases.



Discouraged, I put my dream of being an athlete aside and focused on my Master in Business Program. In 2007, after finishing my MBA I moved from Spokane to Seattle and it was here that things would start to change for the better.



I started to train for a sprint triathlon, Seafair, that summer. Then, three months before the race I found out I had compartment syndrome in my legs and needed to have surgery or give up running. Well, running is part of a triathlon so I very well couldn’t be an Ironman if I wasn’t able to run! So, I had the surgery done and six weeks before Seafair. After the surgery I had to be in bed for two weeks and of course could not train, so I read books on triathlons and watched Ironman videos until I was able to walk again.



I didn’t train for Seafair, and in fact, didn’t even swim in open water until one week before the race. My doctor said I shouldn’t do the triathlon and well, I didn’t listen. I wanted the title of triathlete so bad, I didn’t care that I had just had major surgery.



Seafair came and it took me 3.5 hours to complete a sprint triathlon. You are thinking, what?? Yes, 3.5 hours. During the swim I used mostly my arms and not my legs. During the bike I would pedal and then coast as far as I could and the run, well I think I crawled. I crossed the finish line around 10:30 am – just in time to cross the line with the kids. Fun. But I didn’t care, I had become a triathlete. I accomplished something many people though was impossible.



I went on to do 8 other triathlons that season and several last season. But the Ironman still haunts me. For some reason I think crossing the finish line and being called an Ironman will magically make it where someone will want to date me or I’ll finally feel proud of myself.



I don’t know what my future brings, but I do know there is an Ironman in 2011. This year I decided to focus on my weight and swimming. I need to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year and swim 2.4 miles by the end of the year. I promised Patty I would do this and I’m not going to disappoint her. She has worked to hard with me.



So, as many of you know I swam the 1.2 mile swim race on Friday. And it took me 1:53 to finish the swim. I have the endurance like no other, I can go on forever and ever. But what I don’t have is speed. See in the lake I tend to panic. I panic so much that I swim the majority of the swim with my head up so I can’t see what is in the water. This takes up a ton of energy, more energy than a 3 mile race if I kept my head down. I wanted to quit many times during the swim race but I wasn’t giving up. I kept waiting for Bill to tell me there was no more time to swim and I had to get in the boat and the race was over for me. I probably would have told him no and kept swimming till I finished. This was my 1.2 mile fear fest and I was going to finish the race. And I did. And on August 19th I will finish the 2.5 mile swim I promised Patty.



Two people told me today that I was a superwoman. I’m not a superwoman. I have fears just like all of you. I push myself hard because I hope one day someone will love me. I don’t want to look the way I do and I want to be healthy. I volunteer with kids (students) so I can somehow help them that they don’t end up the way I did.



I think Pre said it all when he said, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”



We all have gifts, every one of us. I think I went through so much in my life so I could help others and being involved in triathlons has helped me see this. Triathlons changed my life and I hope it does the same for your life as well.