The Sunny Side Should Always Be Up

Many people would say its all about attitude in life. Many people would also say easier said than done. My humble opinion is that sometimes it feels like easier said than done, but in the end a person is in control of their own thoughts and their own attitude. Letting situations, no matter how sucky or how great they are, affect you in such an intensity to make others equate your behavior to bi-polar or schizophrenic is never good. You just set yourself up for failure. :-)

With that said...everyone has bad days, tired days, stressful days, and happy days. How you react to them makes all the difference. I like to consider my attitude as extremely positive ( most of the time ;p), somewhat silly with a side of dorky for many necessary situations. All of these came in handy this weekend as we embarked on my birthday/first swim race weekend.

We left for SoCal on Friday and had a slow drive due to some crazy stoppage on I-15 a bit before Yermo. Thankfully, the traffic started moving before I had to pull a "Two Weeks Notice". (video below - scene is at minute 2:12) We arrived in Santa Monica and went straight to the REI to help at packet pick up. Packet pick up wasn't too busy, so we stuffed & numbered swim caps and chatted with Mo, Tina and Jessica from OptimisSports. Great peeps - Jessica - great event and congrats to Tina for Leadville 100 race and Mo for 4.8 mile race on Sunday!! At 8 we helped pack up packet pickup and then made our way to hotel in Culver City. (close without breaking the bank hotel to Marina Del Ray- my start for swim)

Fairly hungry J and I went looking for food and landed at a walking distance restaurant called Island. Hmmmm.....I wasn't aware that California makes restaurants include their calorie counts for each item on menu. WOAHHHHH, not a lot of choices after glancing thru things. I never want to consume over 1000 calories in one sitting, unless of course I am asking for GI upset. ;p
Home we walked, holding hands and eating our Ben & Jerry's Frozen Yogurt...YEAH!!! I so love any time with my sweetie!!!

Saturday morning..WOO HOOO I'm finally turning 9 yrs old! 4+5 = 9 right?? Oh what we're not going on maturity age? If not...well FINE! Then at least I can say I switched AG groups. ;p
We had brought our MTB bikes with us so we got up and rode down to the Dockweiler Beach for J to run "Jet to Jetty 5k". Beautiful beach morning. J had a great race and placed 2nd in his AG!!! More bike riding around to explore and then back to hotel to change to hit the beach and learn how get thru surf.

We found Driftwood lifeguard station and spoke to the lifeguard. Cool guy, very informative and very supportive. Jared came out with me a few times into the surf ( thank you sweetie ), so I wouldn't melt down completely with my fear of the ocean. I am happy to report that I did not have a full on panic attack, although I will say that when I went out by myself while Jared and the lifeguard vigilantly stood guard for me - I practiced and then got out! :-) Next stop Schultzies and cold birthday bread pudding. S'more for Me....YUMMY!!! If you're ever in Venice definitely stop by to taste to goods! http://www.schulziesbreadpudding.com/ We walked, took pictures and received lots of great birthday wishes from all my fabulous friends!!!! Love all of ya! THANKS! The evening ended with a fantastic dinner with friends Kris and Tori, lots of giggles and a train ride! What a great day!!!

Sunday arrived and we trollied over to the start. Ended up that I maybe took too much time trying to stay relaxed but got to the start in just enough time to zip my suit, put my cap , goggles, ear plugs in and give Jared a smooch. WELL....at least I didn't have time to be nervous. ;p
The air horn goes off and so do we...towards the big blue. In a nut shell I will say the race sucked but the swim was great.

The greats:

I didn't have a panic attack as it was my second time in the ocean and I have a fear of the ocean.
I got thru surf fairly easy.
I didn't freak out when I swam thru a bunch of kelp.
I didn't freak out when I swam over a LARGE group of sting rays. Yes...stingrays.
I sighted very well, until I doubted myself because I was alone and then followed others only to find out I was spot on. Other weren't sighting well. ( it was difficult to sight from entrance to exit buoy as the horizon often disappears due to the ocean undulation )
I finished 3.6 of the race.
I now appreciate freshly sliced oranges, even when they don't stay down very long.
I learned that I can vomit/retch horizontally while swimming. NOW that's bound to come in handy someday in some situation. ;p ;p ;p
I didn't give up. Jared had to stop me from going bk in the water the last 1.2 as I was walking, vomiting and had problems standing up straight. LOL
RD's and peeps were very nice and put on a good event.
A deep feeling of pride. I NEVER feel pride in my racing ( regardless of how well I do), only "coulda, shoulda, woulda's" but I am very proud of myself for overcoming some HUGE fears and not giving up. ;p ;p ;p ( I'll be back next year to race the 4.8 and hopefully will have a better relationship with salt water)

The sucks:

Throwing up 8+ times
Feeling more nauseous than I can EVER remember. Even counting college drinking. ;p
Sam + Salt water = BAD
The salt water.
The salt water.
Not being able to feel my right hand...completely numb.
Did I mention the salt water?
Coming out the first leg was very nice as I got to stand up to throw up. Happily Jared capture the event for all posterity. I'm seriously considering making that our Christmas card this year. :-)
Coming out of the second leg feeling even worse than the first time as I now have experienced throwing up horizontally and then inhaling it. YES...that's pretty ding dang dong DISGUSTING!
Having not accomplished the full distance of the race.

Having pointed all those out I will say I was thrilled (well as thrilled as I could feeling like the walking dead ). After Jared pulled me out of race and made me sit down with medical we got up to walk to car. Kris and Tori had stopped by and I felt at first ashamed but then appreciative that they were there to support me. Ashamed ( only for a fleeting moment) and appreciative because between Jared, Tori and Kris they took great care of me. They got me Tums, gave me Gatorade, help me with my shoes, got me a juice to help get some glycogen in my system, gave me praise at just the right moments and walked with me and made me laugh. Priceless moments with 2 priceless people.

We came back to the hotel, I tried to eat a Hawaiian roll and I took a shower. We packed up and headed home. Felt wonkie most of the day and even into today. Still don't feel much like eating but have had half a sandwich and a little pasta. Tomorrow is a new day and I get to swim in the pool before I take off for Penticton.

Moral of the story: Every race is a new adventure. Take the good with the sucky and learn as much as you can!!!