Team in Training Update: Trial Triathlon Weekend

We left last Friday for training at the site of the May Wildflower triathlons, Lake San Antonio in Monterey County. The site is beautifully situated East of Salinas, with rolling, green hills and twisted oaks. The weather was still chilly, but thankfully the Saturday morning swim in our wetsuits ended up being in warmer water than the previous week's. It took me 18 minutes to get to the halfway point in the 0.9 mile swim, but 40 minutes total. The first five minutes were brutal as I gasped for air. I tried to draft off other swimmers but quickly lost them. But I was content with my performance -- the night before I had worried it would take me over an hour.

Next, we had a leisurely transition into our bike gear for the 26 mile ride along the actual Olympic course. I managed to complete that in 1 hour and 49 minutes -- and I made sure to enjoy the scenery periodically. We all got back to camp at around 3 pm for rest, dinner, speeches and skits.

There are so many reasons I am loving Team in Training and the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society: The enthusiastic people and their breadth of athletic ability and knowledge, the opportunity to explore parts of the Bay Area and Northern California I haven't seen before, the good humor, the camping, and the unwavering yet positive focus the organization maintains on curing blood cancers.

In the evening, several speakers shared their stories of cancer survival with us, inspiring sympathetic laughter at their foibles and tears for their pain and struggle. Among the hardest stories to hear are those of children, such as one spirited five-year-old who had just come through lymphoma -- the same type his father had endured 30 years before, only with new treatments that didn't leave him unable to eat solid food for months at a time. We were urged to celebrate life and our bodies, to enjoy the present moment, and to succeed at our fundraising efforts so that more cancer-killing panaceas could be discovered.

That night, we sang songs around the campfire. Thanks to my ear plugs, I slept late -- but not too late. It was 10k time. While the previous day's swim and run had left me feeling like Olympic distances weren't as hard as I'd thought they'd be, the Wildflower 10k (6.2 miles) is mostly uphill, except for the last mile, which winds dramatically downward. I set out with my frequent running partner Gretchen, who is a faster swimmer and biker than I am but likes my running pace. I told her I wanted to run 8:30 miles if at all possible. We were doing well for a while -- at one point, as we passed others someone said "There goes Gretchen and Alexa -- they're quite a team!" Of course, that gave me a boost of energy that lasted maybe a half mile. Then an endless hill crept up on us.

We were going too fast to talk, so I couldn't distract myself by chatting with Gretchen. I began to suffer mentally. "How're you doing, Alexa?" Gretchen asked as she began to pull away from me. I was losing my motivation. A gap quickly widened between my running partner and me, but I kept her in sight. Eventually, my mood came around. I began chanting in my head: "look at the sky, make your feet fly." The hills would not stop. "Do you think we're past halfway?" someone asked as we passed the next water stop. "We must be, by my watch," I replied. I began to count trees as I passed them. It seemed to work. Next I counted rocks, then bushes, then trees with forks. I noticed a young guy beginning to bound up. Suddenly, I could see the point where the hill ended and the last, steep downgrade began. I sped up. The ground was flat and I passed two people. The slope began to steepen and I picked up speed. There was Gretchen and I called out hello as I passed her. "Way to sprint!" she called out. I must have passed six people at the end, but running a downhill mile sprint isn't quite the same as floating -- I could feel nausea and chills as my body began to question this hectic pace. But there was the last turn, and then another runner to pass, and there was the finish -- and I did it in 52:30! According to the Wildflower results page, that puts me at 8:30-per-mile pace! Definitely a personal record.

If I can keep my expectations reasonable yet ambitious, I now know I can complete this Olympic-distance triathlon in a time I can be proud of.

We have only a few weeks left -- and I only have $380 left to raise! Won't you help me reach the goal? Here's where to go to make your tax-deductable donation to this generous organization online.