Resurfacing

Gosh it has been a while since I’ve written, or my dear sister Barracuda. I’m alive and relatively well. Been sick for the last few weeks — sore throat, cough, drippage, and general yuckiness. It’s been going around my office so it was just a matter of time. Unfortunately when I get sick I freak out because it reminds me too much of being sick before. Always wonder if I’ll get over it this time.

Enough drama! On to more positive things! I talked to Barracuda last night who was on vacation with her family. She did get some open water swimming in, but mostly just to roll around with manatees. Lucky her! Then there’s my dear sister-in-law who was due to do the Tri with us. She had a terrible fall and hurt her leg. I feel awful for her. Our prayers are with you, girl. My bro says she’s doing okay now.

I’ve been out of the gym/pool for almost two weeks now which kinda bums me out. But I know my breathing is bad now due to whatever affliction I have. But on the positive side of things, I got my wheels rebuilt on my road bike so that I’m in good bike shape for riding and getting ready for the Tri. YEA! I have a big meeting tomorrow afternoon, but after that, I’m refocusing on my training. I’m going to not freak out about losing weight because Tamoxifen is just too much to overcome. So what, I say! As Karl reminded me, my goal is not zooming across the finish line, but training, participating, savoring, and finishing. Amen!

Karl and Jenny, it’s always good to hear from you. I appreciate the advice and support.

I’m going to rally the Triathlon Sisters to get their booties online and for some blogging. In the meantime, I’ll be back much more regularly starting tomorrow. Can’t wait!

I’m all in now

OK, so 6 months or so ago when my sister mentioned the triathlon, I was like “Sure, sounds cool” but now that I actually have registered and gotten my plane ticket to Denver that reality check of “can I really do this?” is starting to set in.

Right now I’m in the Little Engine That Could stage – “I think I can, I think I can.”  I’m hoping by May I’ll be in the “I’m 80% sure I can” stage and by July I’m shooting for the “I am frickin’ positive that I can do this” stage.   So, that’s my strategy in a nutshell.

I know this will be a great experience and I’m happy I can be there for my sister.  Plus, I get to cross something off of my Top 100 Things to Do Before I Die list.

A TriathlonSisters Update

Last night I got a wonderful call from my sister Barracuda (no, that’s not her real name but here in the Land of Blogs it is). She just booked her flight from New York to Denver for the Tri for the Cure event. I am thrilled. It was the best news of the day! I felt like, wow, this is really going to happen for us TriathlonSisters. Barracuda is my older sister by a mere 14 months. She’s married to a great guy and they have two beautiful children whom I adore.

Cbabe, another TriathlonSister, had a brilliant idea about getting to the event. We had been worried about how we were going to get bikes there since both of us live in Chicago. So she said why not drive there? Of course! Road trip! I think we’ve got a good plan of how to negotiate time off work and how to get there with enough time to acclimatize to the altitude. Cbabe is a good friend whom I met at work. Last summer she and I did the Chicago “Bike the Drive” event where they close down Lakeshore Drive so you can bike it. There were 20,000 cyclists that day! We had a fabulous time together!

A few days ago I talked with the fourth TriathlonSister. She is my dear sister-in-law married to Barracuda’s and my little brother (he’ll always be our little brother even though he is 30). Initially she was going to do the swim portion of the Tri for me because there was no way I thought I could do it since I couldn’t really swim except to save my life (even that was questionable). She said she’d team with me even though she could have done the whole thing. What a great sister! Now that I’ve committed to the whole Tri, she is going to do the whole thing too!! All my TriathlonSisters are doing it for themselves!

So now we just have to get Cbabe and my sister-in-law signed up on this here blog and we’ll have all the TriathlonSisters together. I’ve also invited my little brother to be a part of this because, as a man, he is not able to be a triathlete in this event. So I put him in charge of hospitality, logistics, race route assesser, equipment manager, and overall cheerleading. He’s the best!

Finally, I’ve changed the theme of this here blog to one which indicates which person is writing since there are now a few of us. The header picture is a shot of the Rockies which my brother took. I think it is from one of the rim trails at Roxborough State Park.

Where are the other TriathlonSisters?

I’m writing this post when I should be finishing my laps at the pool. But it was dang cold this morning and I couldn’t emerge from the cocoon that was my bed. I received a lovely comment from a fellow blogging tri woman — Jenny’s Tri Di(ary) — and realized that I’ve been the only one posting on this blog. Well the problem is I haven’t quite figured out all the ins and outs of having multiple authors for a blog, so for now, you just get me. As soon as I figure that out, we’ll get this puppy up and running.