On Saturday I made the 90 minute drive from Petaluma up through Napa's fall spotted vineyards to beautiful Lake Berryessa (a place in the Bay Area I had never been in my entire 30 years of residency in the area) to watch Jen kick butt in her first ever Triathlon, the Tri Girl Tri. Last year Jen's best friend, Mel (on the left in the picture below) raced the race and Jen went to cheer her on. While she was there, she caught the bug. Over the last year Jennifer joined the YMCA, took their boot camp fitness classes, started swimming, running and biking, bought a bike to take out on the roads and even adjusted her diet (including giving up alcohol for a month) as she walked the walk (or more accurately swam the swim, road the ride, and ran the run) of training for a demanding event like a triathlon. Then come Friday, she and her cohorts headed for the hills, camping out on the lake the night before, going to bed early in the evening and rising with the sun on race day.
All I had to do was get my butt out of bed and drive up to the lake, and frankly THAT was a daunting task (I got lost twice). Jen and her friends Mel and Kaylynn (seen below) were up and in the water at 9:00 am. What's more... they were SMILING about it! Jen was smiling all the way... or at least she was smiling whenever she came into public view. I'm thinking that she probably wasn't smiling at about mile 10 on the bike when, as she described it herself, she had "Maniac" playing in her head as she kept her legs peddling as fast as they would go 1-2-1-2-1-2...Jen not only met her goal times, but exceeded them in each leg of the event. She completed the entire race in two hours, twenty one minutes and fortyfive point six seconds, and she did it in fine form.
For me, the whole event, and everything that goes into it, is another one of those moments when I look at the world in amazement and say with Jack Nicholson, "Look what people can do." Just being in the environment and watching my daughter, her friends, and all the other women taking on the challenge was enough to inspire me, and move me to take action for myself. Everything about the atmosphere is a feeling that I crave. The energy, the supporters, the announcers... the endorphins. The gestalt of a fitness event is something that charges me up and makes me want to be better in my own life.
This year's Tri Girl Tri was followed on Sunday by the first all men's Tri at the same event. At the end of her event, while she was STILL smiling, I told Jen that I wanted to do the race next year and that she has to come and do it too. This is the strategy she used on Mel this year... I guess we'll see if it works on her.
Either way... I'm proud of you Jen.. you and your maniac friends.
