September 22, 2013
I signed up for this race many months prior to race day, and in that span of time I experienced a muscle tear in my right shoulder that just didn’t want to heal, in part, because life goes on and you have things you have to do so you just keep doing them. It became a discouraging issue for me because it held me back from training for the swim portion of the race, which also happened to be my weakest event. I tried to get out of my registration and recover but there were no contingencies that would allow the refund. Still wanting to be a part of the event and excitement I decided to be a good sport and sign up as a volunteer. My job, signing in the athletes the day prior to the race…and, not just any athletes…they put me with the table marked “Elite Pros”…Talk about inspiring!!! At this point…I still had the option to race if I wanted to…I was going to wait until the last possible moment and make my decision. Most of the pain had finally healed in my shoulder by this point because I had not over used it in swim training which also left me feeling very unsure of my performance in the water especially because I had chosen to do a longer race this year. (almost a 1 mile swim).
On September 21st I showed up with a smile, wore my bright yellow volunteer t-shirt with pride and donned my Tri4Him hat. As I started checking in some of the Elite Pros, a few of them commented on my hat and said they were also members. Ok, at this point, I was REALLY feeling inspired and the adrenaline was starting to override any fears I had. I wanted to race!!!
So, race I did! Here is where the story catches up to my pride and my humility all at the same time. Climbing my way up the beach/hill to the bike transition is a face choking back tears of disappointment and embarrassment and wanting to quit. I was the second to the last out of the water behind EVERYONE and had lost a significant amount of time. Everyone in bike transition was gone. Oh how I wanted to quit!!! But I looked down at my tri-top and remembered what I was wearing and also remembered that I had committed this race to God no matter how well or how poorly I did…quitting wasn’t an option…He has NEVER quit on me and I knew that I couldn’t allow my pride to shame me into quitting on Him. There were a couple of Rev3 workers there and they encouraged me to just keep moving, get on my bike and GO, you can make it up with your stronger event. At that point, I didn’t feel strong at anything and I knew the mountain that was ahead of me to climb as I got on my bike. Oh how that has become a beautiful reminder of “when I am weak, He is strong”.
I got on my bike and climbed my mountain, literally and figuratively. Before I knew it…I was passing people…God gave me wings to fly and I took 30 minutes off my normal bike time. 26 miles later I made it to my mountaintop and coasted on in to the run transition. I took off on my run with a new resolve and a smile on my face. I passed some of the other Tri4Him pros, coming and going (when I say “pass”, they were far ahead of me and making their second and third run lap of their distance, which was double mine) but it was so cool to have them cheer me on as I ran by them and to also cheer them on. I picked up my pace a bit and came across the finish line only 10 minutes over my original goal, a very different picture.
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Some of my other tri friends were pushing me to go see if I placed in my age group…I was like, “give me a break guys, I’m thrilled with my personal time but I KNOW I couldn’t have placed!”…”just go Julie, we think we heard your name”…so, I went…they asked for my bib number and sure enough, I placed second in my age group (females 45-49) Whoo Hoo!!! Wow! Really? Wait a minute…”how many people were in my age group?” She answered, “2”… laughing out loud at this point. ”Too funny”, I said to myself as I walked away with a medal around my neck, fancy new swim goggles, a t-shirt and a box of Power Bars. This was a new triathlon organization to Branson which had only drawn about 400 athletes on race day versus the 3 years prior with Ironman that drew over 1500 athletes each year.
It really didn’t matter to me, all I could feel was the joy in finishing, not quitting and what God was teaching me at that moment through it all.
Now, I want to take you back to the e-mail that started my story. During the month of October I began to think about next year’s race (2014). I had decided that I should challenge myself and do a race somewhere that I’ve never raced before, new course and unfamiliar to me. I began to research the 2014 triathlon circuits in Wisconsin, and the closest I could find was in Wisconsin Dells. I pondered the thought and decided to wait until after the 1st of the year to look again.
I was going to take the time to pray…pray about the race, whether to do another race? What His directive was for me and what my motive was. I have a wonderful support group of family & friends here in Branson that have always been there to encourage me through my training and to cheer for me at the finish line but I wanted to be near my Wisconsin family this time. I prayed and asked God for a way, an event that could draw my family together.
I will never forget that Tuesday morning in November at 6:45 a.m.
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