Learning to Crawl Before I Walk

According to my mom, as an infant, I was never a crawler. Per her recollection, I skipped the crawl stage and went straight to walking. Can you imagine a wobbly 9 month old infant walking? Well, apparently that was me. Walking at nine months. I wasn't surprised by this memory as my mom told the story. After all, it appears consistent with how I've lived my life even as an adult; without stepwise natural progression. Order? Ha! Who needs that?

My philosophy on life; just get things done, don't allow me to follow the natural, logical order of things. In fact, to me, nothing seems natural about it. For example, my very first organized race (a half marathon) was in March 2007. In my head, I thought I could just show up to the event without any training. However, some logical person convinced me I should put in some work and prepare. I showed up to the start line with less than 6 weeks of "training" ready to conquer the 13.1 miles. I use the word training lightly because I hardly put any real effort into it. It was just running, right? How hard could it be? Six weeks was enough, I thought. Turns out, I could have benefited from more "training" but since I finished the race, without injury, I thought I was good.

I ran a few shorter race distances between my first half marathon and my first marathon and these were also all with minimal training. I'm not saying this to brag, but to shine emphasis on my apparent inherent disregard to preparation and THEN action. Or put another way: To crawl before I walk.

The thought of running 26.2 miles gave me enough pause to take things more seriously. Shortly after registering for my first full event, I joined a local Marathon Training group. I started off good, wanting to do everything right by completing ALL 6 of the weekly workouts but I slowly fell back to a comfortable training schedule of 2-3 sessions per week. March 2019, I showed up race day, with a tad bit of fear in me but in my head, I knew I would be fine. Unfortunately, as most amateur first marathoners do, I started off too ambitious, i.e fast. I ran with a pacer who throughout our first 13.1 miles together, continued to comment how we were set to finish before the 4:50 finish time we were pacing for. Needless to say, by the time mile 20.5 rolled around, I felt like I was going to die. Fortunately, I didn't fall down and pass out, but I sure did feel like I would. I was definitely served a pie of humble pie upon completing this run.

I finished the race and for the two months afterwards, I attended physical therapy with a diagnosis of "runners knee". Initially, I thought my first marathon would be my last; however, I was not even a month out before I registered for my next race scheduled for Fall 2019. That's right; two full marathons in the same year. Physical therapy would get me well again and this time, I would do better. By better, I meant finish without injury.

Long story short, I completed my second marathon 8 months after my first marathon and I finished 11 minutes faster AND WITHOUT INJURY. #michaeljacksonbad I mean, I was not even sore after my second marathon. In case you hadn't notice, I am bragging here. LOL #sorrynotsorry. What was different this time? For starters, I ran smarter. Instead of running with a pacer, I ran my own race. #lessonlearned I also walked every aid station!! That's right! I walked every aid station and STILL finished 11 minutes faster than my first marathon where I did not walk until mile 20.5. I also consumed a roughly 75% vegan diet while training for the second marathon. I honestly feel my new way of eating was the main reason I walked away from my second race without even a twinge of pain. #eatplants

2020 was the year I proclaimed I would become a triathlete. After all, I had already participated in numerous 5 and 10k's, half marathons and a couple of marathons. In my ambitious mind, becoming a triathlete was the next natural thing. And I wanted to go BIG! I had my sights set on a Half Ironman 70.3. lol. Who am I? I made this decision without knowing how to actually swim. I picked an event I wanted to participate in and was ready to move forward with swim lessons and training but then #covid. The pandemic of 2020 put a halt to everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. But I digress.

My plans for competing in my first 70.3 ended before they actually had a real chance to begin. However, the delays have enabled me to slow down and get realistic with myself. Put running and biking aside, it's almost comical now to think I was thinking I could not only learn to swim in a lap pool but also in open water (an ocean or lake where triathlon events are often held) in a matter of a few months. Believe it or, I was getting frustrated with myself during my swim lessons as I struggled to get the breathing components of swimming. "I should have this by now", I thought. "Why is it so hard"? As with all other things in my life, I wanted to "just get it done". Eventually, after speaking with friends, I realized learning to be successful with swimming (and technically any new thing) is a process. Very few persons learn to efficiently and effortlessly learn to swim in one or two sessions and even less decide to participate in an ultra endurance event and be successful without structured training. I am no exception. Showing up to my first 70.3 unprepared is not a real option. After all, not being able to swim can result in death and no one wants that. ha! I won't be able to train half ass, like my previous events (just running) allowed either. I'm learning to respect the distance which is also allowing me to respect the process. I'm finally taking the time to "crawl before I walk" and admittedly, it feels good. And btw, instead of my first triathlon event being a half ironman, I've decided to start small (nothing wrong with that) with an Indoor Triathlon.