A busy day, a sleepless night.
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 in the sport. With that in mind, could he recall mistakes that he made whereas he could advise us not to do the same.
He paused, aknowledging the depth of the question. He then told us a story about how he did a triathlon just last year (the New York Triathlon), where he was talked into it only a day before. Being without any of his equipment, he borrowed a bike, a wet suit, and all the other gear. He laughed as he recollected the moments before the race started, where he was pulled aside to do a television interview. As he was being interviewed, the gun went off, and he almost missed his own start (but he did make it, and he did finish). His moral came back to not trying anything new, whether it's new equipment before the race or a new routine. He also pointed out that even though he had won six Ironmans, those races aren't necessarily his favorite. It's the races that have a story behind them, like the one last year in New York. One of his most important lessons that he still uses to this day is the art of adaptation. Every race will throw us something different. Some things we can control, others we cannot. If we can adapt to whatever card is dealt to us, we (and our race) will be the better for it.
Little did I know how meaningful that advice would be to me later this weekend.
Later on in the day, we went on our shakedown bike ride, which was very nice. We rode the run course, which was extremely flat and very fast. The run course was curvy and would take us through beautiful St. Petersburg neighborhoods. After riding that, I was definitely pumped up for tomorrow's race.
I spend a few hours at the expo, and then I joined the rest of the team at the pasta party. This dinner was much different than the last one I was at in Washington DC. For one thing, it was HUGE. There were hundreds and hundreds of people eating in this ballroom, as opposed to maybe a hundred in DC. David Scott and others were guest speakers. In fact, Scott referred to the question I had asked earlier in the day and built part of his speech around the answer. He also mentioned Team Michigan and how we basically surrounded him two nights earlier. (FUNNY!)
The announcemnet on the fundraisers were amazing. Statewide, Team Michigan raised over $150,000. Nationally, we all raised $1.4 million dollars. That's a LOT of money for an extremely good cause (and thanks to all of you who supported that). The top fundraiser raised an amazing $27,000 all on his own. Wow!
The night ended early so that we could all rest well for the next day. Of course, I couldn't get to sleep until probably 11pm...and I was restless all night. The next day would be one that I would never forget.
Katie, Carly, Ryanda and I enjoy our conversation with 2007 Female Triathlete of the Year and 2008 US Olympic team member, Laura Bennett.
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 in the sport. With that in mind, could he recall mistakes that he made whereas he could advise us not to do the same.
He paused, aknowledging the depth of the question. He then told us a story about how he did a triathlon just last year (the New York Triathlon), where he was talked into it only a day before. Being without any of his equipment, he borrowed a bike, a wet suit, and all the other gear. He laughed as he recollected the moments before the race started, where he was pulled aside to do a television interview. As he was being interviewed, the gun went off, and he almost missed his own start (but he did make it, and he did finish). His moral came back to not trying anything new, whether it's new equipment before the race or a new routine. He also pointed out that even though he had won six Ironmans, those races aren't necessarily his favorite. It's the races that have a story behind them, like the one last year in New York. One of his most important lessons that he still uses to this day is the art of adaptation. Every race will throw us something different. Some things we can control, others we cannot. If we can adapt to whatever card is dealt to us, we (and our race) will be the better for it.
Little did I know how meaningful that advice would be to me later this weekend.
Later on in the day, we went on our shakedown bike ride, which was very nice. We rode the run course, which was extremely flat and very fast. The run course was curvy and would take us through beautiful St. Petersburg neighborhoods. After riding that, I was definitely pumped up for tomorrow's race.
I spend a few hours at the expo, and then I joined the rest of the team at the pasta party. This dinner was much different than the last one I was at in Washington DC. For one thing, it was HUGE. There were hundreds and hundreds of people eating in this ballroom, as opposed to maybe a hundred in DC. David Scott and others were guest speakers. In fact, Scott referred to the question I had asked earlier in the day and built part of his speech around the answer. He also mentioned Team Michigan and how we basically surrounded him two nights earlier. (FUNNY!)
The announcemnet on the fundraisers were amazing. Statewide, Team Michigan raised over $150,000. Nationally, we all raised $1.4 million dollars. That's a LOT of money for an extremely good cause (and thanks to all of you who supported that). The top fundraiser raised an amazing $27,000 all on his own. Wow!
The night ended early so that we could all rest well for the next day. Of course, I couldn't get to sleep until probably 11pm...and I was restless all night. The next day would be one that I would never forget.
Katie, Carly, Ryanda and I enjoy our conversation with 2007 Female Triathlete of the Year and 2008 US Olympic team member, Laura Bennett.
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