A Great Day

Well today I completed the Rob Leviton Memorial Spring Triathlon. I thought of Rob today a couple of times and saw his daughter Kim a few times at various places on the course. I was truly amazed by the number of people that were on hand at the finish line to see me in. Their encouragement and that of the other athletes was truly special. The race officials were wonderful working very much on an attitude of inclusion for me.
Although I almost panicked during the swim, I was actually 2 minutes faster than I predicted. Getting on the bike though I could feel how much the swim took out of my legs. My legs were pretty tired by the end of the ride. The run/walk leg went very well and I felt quite strong coming to the finish. Even as recent as a year ago I thought my triathlon days were finished. My rehab has made it possible to attempt a race suvch as this and I continue to improve daily on the swim and the bike.
I finished the day at a bar-b-que organized be friends to celebrate my finishing the race. They still don't realize just how much they support me to continue trying and moving forward. I am truly blessed.

Rewards for Pushing Yourself

I got up this morning to a cold grey sky that looked all the world like rain. I had asked my friend Darcy to go for a bike ride with me but I really didn't want to ride in the rain. Since I committed to being there I headed out the door. At the 8 km mark on the road we found the tiniest bear cub I have ever seen in the wild. I'm sure it was a new born. It's fur looked like it had just been blow dried and combed. The poor little guy looked like he had just woken up to see two very weird looking things on wheels. I'd love to have gotten pictures, however, mama bear had yet to put in an appearance so we made lots of noise and then took off once we had passed him. He was still therte on the return loop which was a little more challenging since it was up hill.

The rest of the return leg we saw two deer at one spot and another bear just 1.5 km from the parking lot. Sometimes mother nature rewards you for following through with the hard stuff.

More Supportive People

I am registered to participate in the North Shore Spring Triathlon on May 18. As it will likely take me 3 hours to complete this event, I have had some concerns about how my participation will impact the race. The biggest issue is the swim because I am very slow. Well I just talked to the race director about my concerns and his only real comment was you're doing the race - stop worrying about everything, that's our problem. It is all fine to make rules requiring acceptance of disabled athletes in your events, however, it does cause some interesting challenges for a group of volunteers to solve and work around in order for that to happen. The organizers of this race have openly accepted my participation and never once questioned whether I should be involved. The only questions have been what do I need to modify and how do we make it work. There have been more questions in my mind than theirs. If only the rest of the world was as accepting and willing to modify rules in order for everyone to participate. At least now the only barriers to completion are my own physical ones. Three straight hours of exercise will be a great achievement for me.