Jen To The Light : Winning Season

August has gone by in an absolute blur! And, as I stop to reflect on it, it's been an incredible month.
An adage a friend of mine used, when life was good, was that of feeling like you had life by the ass. I never quite understood that sentiment. I mean, I've heard of grabbing the bull by the horns. Ass, horns, heads or tails, I guess if you've got one end or the other, life is good.

And, life is definitely good! Everything that I've materialized this month is undoubtedly related to me allowing my own light to shine. And, recognizing that even when I feel that it has dimmed, and is perhaps only just a teeny bit of light, that it is indeed flickering. And, therein lies the potential for burning brightly. It's about being me; about doing what I love to do. By being what comes naturally to me. And, I plan on revisiting the feelings that I had this month, as springboards, as reminders, as proof that I AM powerful!

Breathing Room
In a previous post, I referred to feeling stressed out and overwhelmed by a daunting deadline in pulling together a forum for work. Great news is that our board decided the timeline was too aggressive and there was too much risk on the line, so it's been postponed til mid-January! Hooray for breathing room!

Duathlon

My incredible month of August started off with a bang, in that on August 1st, I competed in my third ever duathlon (run, bike, run). I missed out on last year's events; and after placing 4th in the DSM 5K, I had the racing bug. I knew that I wanted to take back my title of winning the 2013 Rundtour Duathlon at least in my age division. In addition to medals, they give out pies to the age division winners. They're Amana made pies; and though I'm a cake girl. These pies are YUMAZING!

So, being that the Rundtour event was always a challenge to find online, since it's a small Masonic organized event, I finally dug up some info on the organizers and after messaging them found out that they would not be hosting an event this year. I was super bummed; because duathlons aren't that popular. Triathletes use them to train early or late in their seasons. But they're not very frequent. So....I dug around some more and found one for August 1st outside of Fort Dodge, IA, which is pretty much middle of nowhere. Looking at the times posted for previous years, I KNEW that I had a really good shot at winning the female division.

I trained pretty consistently, with 2-3 runs a week and 2-3 bike rides a week; and I had 3 full duathlon practices for the race distance (1.6 mile run; 12.6 mile bike; 3.1 mile run) under my belt prior to the race.

Then, my uncle passed away; and his service and burial were the day before the race....in New Mexico. I didn't want to not race; and at the same time, I felt that I needed to attend his services. So, I decided if I could find a flight that got me back in DSM on Friday night at a decent time I would do both.

I arrived home at the DSM airport the night before the race at 11:00 and got to bed by midnight. Thankfully, I'd gotten all of my stuff organized prior to going to NM and just had to roll out of bed, make tea and breakfast and go. Gary took care of getting my bike all prepped and packed; and made sure all of my things were organized so things would be super smooth the next morning (awesome pit crew work!) We had to leave at 4 AM to get to the Twin Lakes State Park by 6; which was when packet pick up and transition space selection started. Four hours of sleep is not ideal for me. I'm definitely a prime operator in the 8-9 hour range; so, thankfully, I was able to nod off in the car.

The drive (or what I saw of it was beautiful, as the moon was shining super bright on the corn fields). There were miles and miles of nothingness. Just the sky and Iowa's rolling hills.

We got to the race site, I got marked up, drank my Vi Shake; but it was too cold for me to have my cold watermelon that I'd planned on eating; and too brisk for my headband to be soaked in water. I got my bike, bike shoes, helmet, and another pair of running shoes and an extra water bottle prepped and stored in a good spot in the transition area. And then waited in line for the restroom. The air temp was about 70 degrees; and I was extra glad to not be a swimmer b/c that was flippin cold!

As usual, I was eyeing the competition. And, saw a few girls who I thought would be the fastest. I lined up at the head of the start line for the first run; and knew mentally that I wanted to keep the fast men in my sights. The horn went off, and I sprinted out of the start line and kept up for the first 1/10 of a mile with the two fastest men; and then they were out of sight. My Runmeter had been crapping out previously everytime I biked on run mode; so I just set it to bike mode so I could have the whole event on one record...but b/c I was running and not biking, my split times were sounding foreign to me.

At 1/4 mile in I looked behind me; and there was 1 girl trying to stick with me. Having little sleep, I was tired...and my shins and quads were a little sore still from running the day prior down my parents' hill at their house. So, mentally, I was like "God, she's going to pass me, and I'm going to be pissed."

But, by the 1/2 mile mark, I'd lost her and was only competing with the guys. There were 30-35 of us total registered for the duathlon. And, for a bit of it, I was all by myself on the course.

I got to the transition area, and it was my first "real duathlon" transition of putting on my bike shoes and helmet (I'd worn my gloves for the running part....but, I probably didn't need them LOL I just wanted to save time). And, this boy from a tri team was standing in my way in front of his bike blocking my bike waiting for his teammate. After a couple of nice excuse me's, I had to resort to a louder, more gruff, "EXCUSE ME YOU'RE IN MY WAY" as I darted on past him.

I got on my bike, and the course was 2 laps around one of the lakes. It was beautiful; and the wind kicked up. Which kept it cool, but made the course a little bit more resistant. It was awesome pedaling around the neightborhoods. Volunteers and bystanders were watching and cheering; and what made it even MORE amazing was that since I was the first girl on the bike, as soon as people reaslized I was a girl, they'd start shouting "You go girl! First female!" "Go girl! Get past those guys!" And, that was SOOOO fun to have cheering like that!

The men who were slower runners; and those who'd swum started passing me on their bikes; and I just stayed my course. We had to keep count of our laps; and just as the race director said at the beginning, no joke, you can lose track even with just two laps. So, I made sure I was paying super close attention; and yelled out at the volunteers to make sure I made the correct turn in instead of going onto lap 3 or missing the turnoff to the transition area.

I was feeling really strong and powerful and on top of the world until the last run. The wind died down and it got hot really fast. I was running, trying to keep up with the group of guys that I'd ridden in with. And, then, this one girl from a tri relay team passed me, and I was disappointed b/c there was no way I could match her pace. Because my Runmeter was going from the total distance, in my mind I thought I'd reached 1.5 miles much quicker than I had in reality; and when I saw the 2 mile sign left, I was like "uggghhhh". But, I kept on pushing; and people were really nice and encouraging as they passed. Which simultaneously uplifted and pissed me off.

By the time I had 1/4 mile left I was done. No gas left in the tank. But, I saw the finish line and was like "yay"!

I was pretty certain that I'd won the woman's division for duathlon; but for some reason another woman's time came up as being faster. (turned out she had changed registration to team at the last minute); and only one other woman passed me (though I didn't see her, so I don't know when it happened during the bike portion) and she won the women's division for triathlon and was hella fast.

The most awesome part of winning 1) I got to stand on the podium and 2) BEST PRIZE EVER was a $120 gift card to a Ft. Dodge shoe store for a pair of shoes!!! Be still my beating heart! I was over the moon about that! Awesomeness! While I didn't post my fastest running times ever, I definitely did my best for that given day and left everything I had on the course!

Top Ten
And, to close out the month, I was named as one of the Top Ten Business Women of ABWA! SO SO exciting! Back in April, I'd completed an application form; and was nominated by my local chapter of ABWA as a local Top Ten. The applications from all over the nation were reviewed by an independent judging panel in KC; and I was selected from the pool!

The Top Ten award honors 10 outstanding members for achieving excellence in career, education and community involvement. The next step is that during the National Conference in Albuquerque, this October, I'll be giving a speech to a super large crowd; and then going through a panel interview. I'm SO excited! I've not addressed an audience of that size since Natl Conf in Memphis in 2012; but I'm ready for it! I have come to this place, where I absolutely DIG speaking. And, to do it in my home state, that's just awesome!

Prior to me receiving the call from the National President about receiving the honor, I just had a feeling. I KNEW that I would be selected. It's awesome to have that knowing feeling about things. After posting that I was named one of the ten, I was absolutely flooded with so many congratulations and well wishes, it was so incredibly unbelievable! I've been in ABWA for 8 years; and have served on the National Board and made many friends throughout the years at events across the country. It was just positively overwhelming to realize the ripple effect and how many lives that I have touched. It blows me away!!!

It's been an amazing month. I'm so appreciative of the opportunities that have come my way, the things that I've created, this life experience. I feel on top of the world!