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"Do not look at small advantages, shoot high and achieve greatness"..unknown

So by now you know the story of how I talked my 2 good friends Missy&Michelle into doing a full blown Olympic Distance Triathlon with me. 4 months of training later, $7,500 raised between us, 2 full Saturdays doing garage sales and more..the day had come..

(That is me at 5:00am (bottom left) wondering why the hell I decided to do this! :)


"All Yellow Caps Women ages 35-39 please line up...Missy was shaking, I was panicking... Michelle was in the zone.. I held Missy's hand and told her that we could do this. 3,2,1 Jump..we were in the water..doggy paddling over to the start line..warm up I thought..get warm...3,2,1 WHISTLE..here we go...

Flash forward to this past Monday..I went to the doctor and she asked me a personal question (bet you can figure it out) which lead me to have to think back to 28 days ago.. I realized that it has been one month since completing my Tri and I have not blogged about it. It has taken me one month to wrap my head around the fact that I actually did it.. I actually finished my first Olympic Distance Triathlon! It is over..4 months of training are over..and I can officially call myself a Triathlete.


With that said..this is also my letter of retirement. My days of being an Olympian are over :) I am sticking to sprints. I realized several things in the week leading up to the Tri. not the least of which is that I get way too worried and anxious and I do not like that feeling so.


To recap:

1) I missed drinking alcohol-I only stopped one week before..but I missed it. There I said it.
) My stomach can stay in knots for 3 straight days without ever calming down.
3) Taking 2 days off before the event is not enough. I felt busier in those two days with really nothing to do than had I been at work
4) Each new Text or Email wishing me good luck forced me to run to the restroom restroom (that was a shout-out to Monica)
5) I was unusually calm the night before the Tri and was calm right up until the start whistle for my wave to go in the lake.

..."Stroke, stroke, stroke--I was doing it and thank GOD for the guy running on the sidelines whose wife was the same speed as me..he truly is the only way that I knew that I was moving at all.

I swam and swam and swam..just keep going I thought..look up..are you close? Nope-not yet..keep going Stroke, Stroke, stroke..bang..What the? I looked up and I had swam right into the pillar of the bridge. YUCK..Panic Panic Panic..swim swim swim..CREEPY-swim.. OMG here is the half way buoy...made it..stroke, breathe, stroke, breathe-I can see it.. I can see the buoy for the turn in...Stroke, stroke, breathe, breathe, turn...here I come...

I heard my name announced as I ran towards my bike...WOW..1/3 down!

Here comes the bike:



I jumped on my bike-ran with it for a while and then jumped on..here I go! It was hard to get going at first-I was tired and wet and that combo usually does not do be right..but I made it up the first hill then the second..then around the Capital and then sped down at 20 MPH...then back around 4 times. David was at the bottom of the turnaround..Leslie and my TNT friends were at the bottom of the hill. "Way to go Jennifer" Leslie screamed.. It helped really !

Good job Babe David kept yelling and my mom too with her video camera capturing my Olympic debut...all of a sudden on my last loop, I came up to Missy. We rode together back .. she has another loop to go. She was tired, so was I. I wanted so badly to ride with her but man, I was just tired! So with all the motivation that I could muster...I sent her off on her last loop. My bike ride was over..



Here comes the run:

Now if anyone knows me at all, they know that running is my least favorite sport. I can ride 100 miles on my bike and now, I can swim 1 mile without stopping, but running..just is not my thing. And I knew it and accepted that before I ever signed up for this crazy event.

But God was on my side because in the transition was my friend Kelly, an ex co worker from the Dallas chapter who was just getting her shoes on. Kelly...run with me! We walked our and then challenged each other to keep going (She more than I) and I admit..when we saw someone taking a picture---we ran :) around the corner and then...we were done. We ran under the finish sign and it was over..our job was complete. We waited and watched as Missy ran in from her last lap. The entire team was there, supporting us until the end. I was glad that I did it, I was glad that it was over!

I did not "win" as some people asked..I finished, and to give you an idea of how long it took...check out the transition area. As we walked to get our bikes we realized that hardly anyone was left walking around, some tents were closed down..here is what we saw as we turned into transition to get our stuff..

Yep-3 lonely bikes left alone...can you see another bike ? Nope-neither could we. We started together, we ended together.

What can I say? What is there to say? I did it. I did something that most people will never even think to do much less actually do. I pushed myself physically, emotionally and mentally for almost 5 hours on one of the hottest days that Austin has seen. I had love and support and love..it was amazing. It was an accomplishment of a lifetime, an experience of a lifetime.

Thank you angels for keeping me safe! GO TEAM