No pain no gain

Thursday, June 26 (one month ago) was the last time I did any real exercise or working out, a forty mile bike ride took place that day. Yes, a couple of brief "open water swim" attempts while taking the kids to the beach and maybe one night a bike/swim. But not training everyday for an hour. It was prior to my last Triathlon on June 1 that I really trained for a race. Just days later I received our referral. Would it be necessary to point out that my focused changed then? Racing in another Triathlon fell way down the list after, figuring out everything I needed to do to prepare to be the mother of a 2 1/2 year old, mother of three, traveling to Ethiopia.

So in the previous couple of weeks people have asked me if I was prepared for this Triathlon. Ummm, nope. Not physically. I finally decided to explain to people that I was doing an experiment, see what happens when you don't train for two months and then run a Triathlon. "Have you worked out lately?" "No, I don't want to upset my experiment." So last night, "carb load" (read - eat as much pasta as you can fit in your belly and still get up and walk away from the table), then a good rest (read - up blogging until 11pm last night) and up at 4:45am to prepare for race day (read - throw together all the requirements to get through a race and spend 10 minutes looking for running shoes).

The event - 1/2 mile swim, 17 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. Lesson learned, if you prepare mentally you can achieve anything! I completed this race in 2 hours and 6 minutes, my last race was completed in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Today's race was longer. Fastest time in my age group in the last tri was 1:09 and the fast time in today's was 1:21. So it was a longer course possibly more difficult I can't account for all the factors. I would say I did pretty close to equally well in time. Oh, but wait... the story isn't over. I came home and took a two hour nap, and right now as I type, I would say I feel like I was run over by a truck. After the last tri - I felt pretty good, ready to go again actually. Today, not so great. I may return to bed after I complete this blog post. I can only imagine what tomorrow will feel like.

If I draw a parallel of lessons to be learned from this triathlon to our adoption process (I have to make the post relevant to the blog right?) I would say this: Prepare physically and mentally. Be hypervigilant about internal and external factors, and in the end success will feel better and be enjoyed more. I know some days I am over the top with some of my adoption preparations; but when I get to Ethiopia and I have every last item I need, no wishing for a bag of peanut covered M&Ms, no wondering if have taking an extra vitamin would have kept me healthy, no concern about running out of diapers or wipes - none of that. No surprises about a little boy who's not interesting having new parents, nor surprised family members responding to our intention to embrace a new culture, nor wondering why our new son is still having nightmares months after we are home. I will be prepared, and hopefully I have done my best to prepare others. You don't just wake up one morning and think you can run a triathlon, either you endure the pain of training before or the pain of racing after. I hope my preparations for this adoption is allowing me to pay my dues in advance so that I can enjoy the outcome of this adoption journey!