The Speed of You: It’s All that Matters

At RaceMania this weekend someone asked the question about when triathlon and running became easy for me.  (This is not the first time this has been asked, by the way.) Of course, the response to that was all, “Ummm… Never?” Because running isn’t easy for me.  Swimming can be–to a degree.  Cycling comes in second–not easy, but more natural, but only after working at it for years. But running–no, that’s been a long process of trying to be even competent. [And out of the three sports in triathlon–let me be clear. I’m not super great at ANY of the three.]  And mind you further, I am not being negative. This is not me being “so down on myself” or asking for you to say, “Oh, but you ARE sooooo great!!!”    On paper and in an objective way, one really cannot say that I am great at any of the three disciplines that involve triathlon–there are far, far far superior athletes out there, so there’s not need to belabor this point.  /MovingOn But I have worked really hard over the past almost-eight years in many, many ways… in the public ways, and in the behind-the-scenes ways that no one even really knows about… and never will.   Because at this point, I can say that for ME, I am GREAT at triathlon. Because when I started this sport, I couldn’t run 10 minutes without BRUISING the bottoms of my feet. Literally. I was doing one mile jogs at a 16:00-17:00 minute mile–and leaving myself with bruises—from my post-two-baby weight, from the pain, from my ignorance about proper shoes, running form, any of it. All of it… it was a bloody hot mess.  So the progress to a 2:11 half marathon of 13.1 RUNNING miles at a 10:00 pace, in reality, is actually huge–even in the time it has taken me. And the cycling? Falling at every light because I couldn’t work pedals or brakes. Crying, sweaty hot tears because, “For the love of god, how hard is it to RIDE AN EFFING bike!??” Not understanding ANYTHING about a bike. Gearing? Oh em gee. When I started riding? A 6 mile bike was torture… torture! And 10 MPH? Yes, on a good day… Fast forward a few years… to go from crashing at stop lights (still do, sometimes!) to Ironman on the bike (yes, even at 14.8 MPH for the 112 miles). That is also actually huge. Very huge. Finally, the swimming. During my first swims, I sputtered down the pool… stopping before 25 meters. Weeks and weeks later, my first mile took me almost an hour. And to end up swimming 10,000 meters a while ago (and I’ll be honest in a really obnoxious way, because it’s all I’ve really got… that 10k swim wasn’t even hard… like at all)…