Andi's Movement Towards Change

3:30am. Race day. My roommate, Carly, is antsy. She is on a quest that she has worked hard on for many months. She will be competing today in the Elite Amateur division, one step behind the pros. Her wave would begin before 7am. Carly and I started triathlons at the same time...just a year ago this May. She took to the sport like a fish to water, and has just gotten better ever since. I'm really proud of her, and I'm excited for her race today, even moreso than my own. I rolled out of bed at 4:15am, and got all of my gear together. We headed down to the lobby at 5am, where we met our teammate Chris, who is also our honored hero Haley's father. He too had an early wave in the race. My wave was late, at 9:02am. I'd be going off with the other Team in Training ladies, the second to last wave of the day. I knew I'd have time to relax, watch Carly start, and get focused before I even began. We got to check in, got body-marked, and set up our transitions. My plan was to c...

It's the day before the race and our team was faced with another busy schedule. We had a lot of things we had to do today. We had our open water swim practice, which went quite well. There were a few team members who had never experienced an open water swim, and they were a bit freaked out by the whole experience. I realized at that moment that there are some huge differences training during the Michigan winters versus training through the hot summers. We never had the opportunity to have that open water swim practice like I had when I was training for the Nation's Triathlon. It took a while, but the coaches and teammates were able to calm nerves to help prepare for tomorrow's race. Our team also sat in on Dave Scott's hour-long pep talk for our team and others. He had a lot of interesting information, some which I knew and some which I didn't. I asked him to look back in his career to the beginning, when he was in the same position as so many of us are -- a newbie ...

Soon after I signed off at the airport yesterday, I was priveledged to meet someone that I have admired for quite some time. She is beautiful, courageous, and strong. Her name is Hayley, and she is four years old. This beautiful blonde hair blue eyed child was diagnosed with childhood leukemia last year, and she is our team hero. Fortunately, her cancer is now in remission. Her dad, Chris, will be racing along with us tomorrow. (You can read about his story here .) Chris and his wife Katie didn't think that they would all be able to go down with the team. Three plane tickets are expensive, especially in this economy. But an anonymous donor bought the ticket for Hayley to be able to join her dad and the rest of the team. To whoever that was, thank you. We are all thrilled that Hayley and her family is here with us. After our team arrived in Tampa, we spent most of the day strolling around doing various things -- getting race packets, checking out the awesome expo, exploring the hote...

It's 9:30am, Friday, April 25. I just arrived at the gate and met up with our team. Yes, after five months, the time is here for us to head to St. Petersburg. It's always great to see the whole team together. I've got a renewed sense of excitement since I am now well enough to participate. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to try and beat my personal best time, but at least I can humor the idea. I won't know that answer until I'm on the course. I was delayed a bit at security, not realizing that I'm not allowed to bring my bike wrench because it was over seven inches long. The FSA agent that scanned my bag said that if it were up to him, he'd let it through, but because of all of the cameras his hands were tied. The irony with the whole thing is that in my bag, I also had my bike seat which was even longer than the bike wrench. I ended up checking my race gear bag, which is taboo usually in case the airline loses the bag (hence the race would be scratche...

So if you haven't figured it out yet, I don't typically post entries if 1) I'm way too busy, 2) I'm not motiviated or 3) I'm injured. Why would I want to write about an injury when I can't do a darn thing about it but simply wait to see if it feels better? Well, that's what has been going on in the last couple of weeks. After my hamstring injury two weeks ago yesterday, I had pretty much written the upcoming St. Anthony's triathlon off as a scratched race. For those of you know know me and my inner-competitive spirit, this was a crushing blow for me. Other than people at work, family, and a few close friends and teammates, I didn't really tell anyone. I didn't even tell my bike coach, Brian. Why? I don't know...probably because I was in denial. I feel the pain, I look like I'm in pain, but I just can't seem to accept the fact that I am injured. With extensive ice treatments and prescribed Motrin, I babied my injury for a week while I ...

On Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of running with two of my Nation's Triathlon teammates, Rob and Brian. I hadn't trained with them since last summer, and it was wonderful to get my blood pumping with them again. Rob has always been a wonderful mentor to me -- he never is short of encouragement when it comes to me reaching my full potential as a triathlete. When we would ride together, he would always be the one waiting at the top of the hill, pushing me to give it just a little more while at the same time having that unwaivering belief in his voice that I could conquer anything. Brian is no different, always cheering me on whether I'm in the pool, on the bike, or out on a run. His incredible energy can light up any room, and his optimism always has a way of being contagious, even at times where the light at the end of the tunnel seems only a speck. Fortunately for me, Rob and Brian wanted to have an easy run that night. Their easy run is the equivalent to a good hard ...

Recently, I was in a delightful mood at work. It could have been because a big project I had been working on for months was finally out of my hair. It could have been because my kids said something charming that put a big grin on my face. It could be because I had listened to a song that just launched my mood to a different level. Whatever it was, I don't recall now. But someone I work with observed this mood on this particular day, and asked if I was pregnant. (They quickly retracted with embarassment, likely after seeing the horrified look on my face.) Fast forward about three weeks. My neighbor makes a comment that she likes my license plate. "Thanks!" I said with delight. After all, I was very proud of my new personalized plate I had gotten a few weeks prior. As we were talking, she made a comment that now I just need to have a third kid! "WHAT?" I exclaimed. That definitely was NOT the meaning of the license plate, I laughed at her. I was hoping that she ha...