First Posting

"The mind is everything-what you think-you become" Buddha

I have a plan. It is to complete the 1/2 Ironman in Calgary August 1, 2010. Many of my friends have asked me a million questions about this goal and why in the world anyone I would want to undertake such a feat. I supose it has to do with accomplishing something I never thought possible. It's good to have goals!

This goal involves 1.2 miles of swimming, 58 miles on the bike and 13.1 mile run for a grand total of 70.3 miles. This blog is dedicated to my goal, the process, my training, and the life lessons I can learn from this. It is also for my family and my dear friends who love and support me!

Some days I get very nervous and anxious and feel like this is impossible-other days I think I can do it. You see while I have been a recreational runner for a long time, lets just say cycling and swimming are not my strong points. Prior to October of 2009-I had no idea of how to do the front crawl- I could only keep from drowning by doing the dog paddle -oh and I did know how to flip on my back and float!

It was my little son, Isaac (7) who inspired me to swim. Every week I take him to the Pan Am Pool for his swimming lesson, and I would see him jump into the pool, and try so hard to keep up with drills his instuctor had planned for him. I could see him work so hard in the pool to learn the front crawl, to get his little arms up and to kick and to breathe.

Then one day as I was sitting with my friend Jackie, we got to talking about how wonderful it would be if we could swim. Jackie also had a goal-she was terrified to dive and had always wished she could-but believed that this would never be possible. While this goal was not on her radar screen, she did want to learn how to be a better swimmer. So the two of us asked Isaac's swim instructor if she wouldn't mind teaching us old gals how to swim.

Well I guess as an adult, you sometimes get to think that what kids can do, adults can do just as well or perhaps better-we are bigger, we are stronger-we have more life experience blah blah blah. First lesson in this journey.....WRONG!

Our first swimming lesson we came prepared. We had our one piece swimsuits and our goggles. The first challenge was to get all my hair (and I have a lot of hair for those of you who know me well) into my swim cap. I pulled, I tugged, I tried my best. I finally got it on, and when I looked in the mirror I came to the conclusion that I could have played one of the actors in the movie about Coneheads. Jackie was kind enough to tell me that it only looked like a little hump-but I knew better. Ok so I wasn't going to look as sleek and streamlined as some- I could deal with this.

Next was the actual lesson, which was disheartening and enlightening at the same time. Fortunatley our instructor broke down the steps on how to do the crawl, but by the time Jackie and I swam our first 25 meters, our lungs were on fire, we swallowed a bunch of pool water and our legs burned in a way we never thought possible. Both of us felt saddened by this discovery as we both thought we were in decent shape (Jackie is a recreational runner too), but we decided to perservere, and agreed to sign up for future lessons. Looking back, I laugh at the thought that we both thought a max. of 4 lessons would be plenty.

The next time we took our children to the pool for their swimming lesson, our hearts hummed with pride in realizing how hard this actually is for them. I learned in a very real way that I need to have more patience with my children as they are constantly having to learn learn new things, and challenge themselves (its not just one swimming lesson!). So when Isaac is cranky and Ava (3) is having a temper tantrum and the dishes are dirty and the laundry isn't done, and the phone is ringing, and the dinner needs to be made, and I feel overwhelmed.....I look into those little eyes and have a better understanding. Thank you swimming!