One of my most proud accomplishments to date is completing my first Triathlon. I had discovered the Nautica Malibu Triathlon a few years ago. The first time I came across it, I was very intrigued and excited to discover it. I was fascinated that I had grown up so close to Malibu, CA, yet I have never heard of this event until fairly recently. I also loved the fact that you compete for a cause and raise money for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
As mentioned, my first emotion was excitement and curiosity, but then the fear and doubts set in. I thought to myself, there’s no way I can compete in this, I can’t swim that far, I don’t even own a road bike and I’ve never ran that far in my life! So the year came and went and I never pursued the opportunity to participate in the event that year.
The following year I saw an advertisement for the Malibu Tri again on my Facebook feed. I questioned, “Am I really going to let another year go by and regret the fact that I didn’t participate in this event”? This time, I decided to approach things a little differently. I broke everything down into small measurable steps.
Step #1 COMMIT. I had to Commit to competing in the triathlon. So I signed up for the event, paid the fees in full and told myself there is no turning back now.
Step #2 ACCOUNTABILITY. I had to hold myself accountable to train and to follow through with my promise to myself to complete this race. In order to really lock myself in, I shared my goal with others and tied it in to a charitable cause. Therefore, not only am I holding myself to this, but I have many others who are counting on me to follow through. I did this by announcing my commitment to competing in the Tri through Facebook. Additionally, I provided a link for others to donate to CHLA and to support my cause for racing. After all, now I have other people’s money on the line, I certainly do not want to disappoint.
Step #3 CREATE A CLEAR PLAN OF ACTION. The Malibu Triathlon website offered a great training resource that broke down the proper training over a 16 week period. The training plan provided offered broken down daily training regimes on a weekly basis. It gradually built up on distance and speed overtime and then would taper off the last week so you don’t burn out prior to race time. Granted, I will confess, I did miss a few training days here and there, but I feel that overall by race day, I was ready to go and prepared to compete.
Step #4 ASK FOR HELP. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Be humble and be open to learning something new. During training, I gave up a few mornings of my usual HIIT training and went to the local pool to practice for the swim portion of the race. Swimming competitively was new to me, so I consulted a good friend who is an avid swimmer. He took me to the pool for my first few swims and gave me some great techniques to focus on to improve my swimming.
Step #5 HAVE SOME HUMILITY. Anytime you’re doing something new, it’s gonna be a little awkward; and that’s okay! Road biking was completely new to me. At this point, I only had a hybrid bike and I did not want to invest in a road bike quite yet. I did feel like I might look pretty silly next to all the other athletes with their fancy road bikes. On the other hand, I thought, hey, that’s gonna be pretty bad ass to say I competed in a Triathlon with a hybrid bike! I ended up competing in the Tri with my hybrid bike and I must say after seeing some photos I did look pretty foolish. But again, how many people can say they raced in a Triathlon with a hybrid bike? This guy can 😉
Step #6 GRATITUDE. A concern or mine during training was by the second mile of running, my knee would develop a great deal of pain, almost to the point where I couldn’t move my leg. Yes, only 2 miles! I was afraid I would not be able to complete the Tri as the run portion was a little over 4 miles distance. By race day, I still had not ran over 4 miles. What kept me going was thinking of all the children at CHLA we were supporting from this race. I couldn’t image the pain these children endure every day they’re in the hospital for treatment. I knew that the pain I was feeling was only temporary and it wasn’t going to stop me from accomplishing my goal. I kept in mind how grateful I was to have my health and the ability to compete in this race. By mile 3 until the end of the race I was definitely feeling the sharp pains in my knee. But keeping all this in mind certainly softened the pain and pushed me through to the finish line.
While crossing the finish line, I spotted my Fiancé and my younger sister cheering me on with big paper signs they had made for me. I celebrated my accomplishment with them and could not feel any better having challenged myself to do something I couldn’t have imagined doing before.