Ironman World Championships 2011 October 24, 2011 at 4:52pm For those of you peeking in to see what the hell this is, a brief explanation follows: the triathlon "race report" is merely a blog to note how a significant race went so you can 1) learn from your mistakes and 2) tell everyone about your gastrointestinal issues on mile 12 of the run. #2 isn't so much my style. I prefer to pontificate about my proverbial "gastrointestinal issues", the ones in life that make or break the race and not the actual ones that occur. As in, "man I really pissed this racing season away" or, "damn, that was a shitty life decision". Everyone writes just a little bit differently but the end result is the overdue catharsis that one needs after investing thousands of dollars in cash, hundreds of hours in time spent training and dozens of relationships that are affected with no promise of survival of said relationships after it's all over. And that may or may not be because of the training or because you become some self-absorbed ass along the way. In any case, here's my race report for the Ironman World Championships, 2011. Just in the way of disclaimer, this one is heavy on the chick-ness so if that grosses you out, click back to your home page and read other face book posts. You won't hurt my feelings. I wasn't going to write a race report this year. Didn't need one. The race went well. However, events over this past weekend in my personal life made it suddenly necessary for me to recap the trip to Hawaii in order to convey some gratitude. In the way of background for those not necessarily consumed by the sport of triathlon, Kona is THE SUPER BOWL of triathlon. We've built it up into this enormous beast of an event and rightfully so as it's the culmination of a very long season for those who participate on a professional basis to pay the electric bill. It requires (mostly) another race of equally grueling preparation to qualify and that's if you're good enough to get the top 1 or two slots in your qualifier. Once there, you are now competing with the best of the best (strains of the Top Gun theme are now playing softly in the back ground). There's pretty sizeable pressure to train, prepare and race well. Enter 2011 for Rosie. As one of my good friends called it, 2011 is TYIDSUF - The Year I Didn't Sign Up For. Everything that could go wrong probably did. It was the year that everything was FINALLY supposed to go right, the year I was going to race like a champion, the year that would exorcise all the demons of the last two years and make it all ok. For those not read in on some of my personal details, just know that my life has dramatically changed and apparently that change is still not over. Bottom line, it was hard and I was hoping for redemption in 2011. Unfortunately I blew my proverbial wad early. The season started on a very high note with an Olympic distance where I had a very good run resulting in a pretty durn good race. One month later, the spiral in TYIDSUF began. Ironman Utah. This is one of my biggest ever "WTH was I thinking" moments. Ever. And not because the race was difficult, although it was. More so because it seriously didn't mesh with my life at the time and was designed as a check in the block to put on my triathlete resume. Never do this. Learn from my pain. This is dumb. But damn, now I know. Then, three weeks later (and this is shared not for sympathy but to indicate mindset and once again hopefully have my nieces learn from my pain) through some rather interesting circumstance that I didn't see coming, I find myself dumped at the Colorado Springs airport...via text message. Never make Ironman decisions after being dumped from a relationship particularly if it comes in through text message. Wayne Dyer (among many others) says we manifest what comes to us. Awesome. Mind chatter: "I've manifested a crappy race and just invested four months of my life with someone who ditches me 10 minutes after leaving me on the curb at the airport. In a text. Wow, 1) I'm apparently an ass and 2) I was really on the fence but now I need to do another Ironman...this year!" *sigh* No. No. No. Bad Rosie. I entered my application to Navy sports and they picked me up to represent Navy for the third time. (Dispensing with the sarcasm for a moment, this is really big and I'm terrifically grateful that the Navy Sports office still facilitates our competing in this race particularly in a time where funds are incredibly tight. I can't thank them enough for allowing me to compete for a total of 6 times on Navy sports teams and it's been a blessing and a highlight in my career.) So enter Hawaii Ironman at a time where my life already couldn't get any fuller and getting ready for retirement to boot. Lots going on personally and professionally. Training begins and my life becomes one long workout morph into dog walk morph into staff meeting and power point presentations morph into workout. I can hardly remember the last four months except to say I remember they were tiring, I drove with road rage every day, overindulged in coffee to the point where I might have an ulcer (ok, not really but it really was a lot) and my dog is never allowed to go swimming in Seashore State park again lest he pick up more digestive critters (I promise that is the ONLY reference to actual G.I. issues) and damn, do my carpets need to be steam cleaned. Racing from May until Sept 10th was pretty bad. Results just weren't there at all and seemed to solidify my distaste for this silly YIDSUF. Just as tired as last year, same injuries as last year yet was finishing 30 minutes slower in some races. It just wasn't gelling and "man this shit just aint fun anymore". Remember all that hype I mentioned with regards to the World Championships? Now we're feeling it. Nothing like some self-induced pressure to rock you to sleep (again to my nieces, don't do this...it simply isn't necessary, please worry about things like walking gracefully in high heels, not race results). Why the eff am I doing this? And alone no less? I need sherpa crew for my life! Again... *sigh* Learning stinks sometimes. Particularly when it's actually "re"learn. Why all the whining Rosie? Just need to set the stage folks. There's a happy ending coming. I have a drawing in my cubicle that shows a graph of the daily caffeine curve: wake up with severe depression, 7 am - 1st cup (curve moves up the y-axis scale), 8 am - 2nd cup, 9 am - 3rd cup and heading towards "normalcy" on the graph depiction, 4th and 5th cups towards noon and we're approaching "incredible elation" on the y-axis with "God Sighted" by 1 pm on the x-axis. Then the curves goes south towards "feelings of worthlessness" by 4 pm and "triple shotgun murder" by 5 as the caffeine slowly dissipates at the end of the day. In life, I was on the "feelings of worthlessness" at 4 pm desperately needing a caffeine boost on this YIDSUF. This blog is dedicated my caffeine boost to let them know how important they were in getting me across the finish line in a manner where the time totally didn't matter and the journey (race week journey) was everything. I wrote off the cuff in my 2008 Kona race report that "There's nothing lonelier than a finish line without friends" and for a tag line that was completely out of the blue and without much thought at the time, this has run true over and over and over again for the last three years. It resonated in a way that I didn't anticipate but am humbled and grateful to manifest (with help of course) some good vibes to make the last 9 months feel like a mark in the "W" column. Where to begin... Gratitude. Just a ton of it. First, thanks to my good friend Charity for watching the Big Lebowski for two entire weeks. Your pictures sent of Dude to those of us in Hawaii were priceless but not as priceless as the video of his summer vacation to West Virginia to the soundtrack of a little dueling banjos. Ensuring the Dude was well cared for made a huge difference in letting me concentrate on the race and some desperately needed down time on the back end of the race. His new toy box is awesome by the way! To Angel and Jill who lived with me at various points throughout the summer and fall, thanks for putting up with some rather interesting (and admittedly bizarre) behavior while I vented my way through crap on the carpet (I lied, this is another reference to G.I. issues....sorry), my onerous work schedule during the end of fiscal year contract season, my overly ambitious training schedule and puppy training. I'm still convinced that Big likes Angel better than me to this day but then she was the one who finally got him to eat out of a dog bowl. Jill, your cooking rocks. Kobe beef and sangiovese....bring it! To the Team Big Entourage: Little did I know that when I rolled up to that first DC ride, I'd meet people who would be willing to fly 6,000 miles at great personal expense to support me. Not only that but they arranged the transportation, housing and "social schedule" which made the week unreal fun. To my sistas Julie and Jen, I owe you a debt of gratitude that may be hard to pay back. Thanks for your support in the months leading up to the race, thanks for the emails keeping me going, thanks for the phone calls to the office to check in (Julie!!) and thanks for handling all the logistics so all I had to do was show up wit' my (sarcastic, poopy pants, bad attitude) bad self. Thanks for the t-shirts, the photos, and some really crazy memories of a week that totally erased the previous 4 months. As I was spread eagle on the pavement of the Seaside hotel, there were few people on earth I would have rather seen. Jesus maybe. Elvis definitely but only because Haysoos would want an autograph. To my real sister Libby...wish I had words. You and the Herman clan have supported me through about 24 years of personal crises, drama, racing, multiple dogs, deployments, everything Navy, or whatever it was I was doing at the time. I've eaten your food, drank your beer and broke just about all the appliances in your home at least twice. How do I pay this back? Unable. Can't tell you what it means to have shared this great experience with you and hope that it was worth the time and energy you spent in making it happen. It has been very cool to share this weird piece of my life with someone in my family so you know (oh wait... you already knew) how crazy I am but also why and what fuels me. And hopefully despite my debacle of a personal life that in some way I've given your awesome daughters something to reach for, although hopefully in a much less painful manner! Maybe I've manifested something pretty good! I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Haysoos. For those who haven't already met Haysoos, he's my stuffed turtle side kick. Long story and if you want to check him out, he's on Face Book as well under Haysoos Honu. More an idea than a stuffy, Haysoos embodies living life to it's fullest and is my constant companion while on travel to continually remind me both of this concept and of our home away from home, Hawaii. Haysoos has lived more life in three years than most people live in a life time. Born on the Pali Highway in Hawaii on a cold, rainy December day of 2008, he's been to Alaska (numerous times), Seattle, St. Louis, Detroit, Rhode Island, Arizona, Utah, Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee (wanted to see Elvis but no joy), Colorado, Kansas (he didn't want to go there though...Dorothy had left the building), North Carolina, California, Kuwait, an aircraft carrier and flown over Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hell, I've barely done all these things. Haysoos is the guy who lives life in a gold Elvis costume with joy to its fullest and sits on my counter as a reminder that we carry all the protection we need in our shell so what's stopping you from getting out there and taking a chance. Well, the good news is that just before we hit the ground in Hawaii, Haysoos got his book deal. Fer real. While it added a big chunk of "OMFG" to life (I now have a lawyer on retainer...for normal people this isn't a big deal, for me, OMFG!), and required significant time at a time when I didn't have time, it's now in the hands of a publisher. The Biography of Haysoos in the form of a children's book will be out hopefully before Christmas. So Haysoos tagged along to Hawaii also much in need of siesta from the writer's grind, the paparazzi, the lawyers and the biz in general. Oh and a break from that dog! He kept the Team Big entourage company while I was working and is the glue that keeps us all together. Not bad for a $10.99 stuffed turtle from Ward Center. Good work Lil' Man and mahalo for keepin' it real. As for the race? Didn't matter so don't need to discuss it. It merely provided me with an opportunity to relearn what I've forgotten (again!) about the necessity to grow tight relationships, understand those that are not, ask for help when you need it and be able to accept help in no matter what form is arrives. I was looking in the wrong places, didn't realize that until yesterday and therefore focused my angst in the entirely wrong place. So to the dude that's really pissed at me right now, you're entirely entitled. Acknowledged offering sincere apologies and hopefully you will not be pissed at me for long. To my kokua crew mentioned above, thank you and accept my most sincere gratitude in proverbially getting me up, pushing me out the door and carting my carcass home after every bad race, every step of the last four months and after the race on October 8th. In closing my only catchy tags lines are, "if you give up too much, you'll have nothing left" because I am now there, and "Go Big or Go Home". Aloha, rosie