Clarity Defined

It’s November 4th… just a few days away. Do you know what you’re voting for?

Me? I voted by absentee today.

A month or so later, I return to Race Weekend… I return to the “after” and I reflect on all that it was and continues to be. You can find Part 1 of 3 here and Park 2 of 3 here. Photos from Race Weekend can be found my Flickr site in this set.

Upon being greeted with big hugs and wonderful congratulatory remarks by my parents, grandma, aunt, and uncle I joined the line of finishers for food and then joined my other teammates back on the course to cheer in and cheer on the rest of our teammates. As our last teammate ran in, we ran with her… USAT rules out the window! It was great running along side her and then watching as she crossed the finish line. Together, we went to the TNT tent to receive our TRI pins and then a number of us joined the line for a free 10 minute massage. Heaven!

After spending time at the expo again with my family, I headed back to the hotel on what could possibly be described as he longest 4 mile bike ride… ever. Shower, change, and then off to Cannery Row with my family! I enjoyed walking around with them, but did not enjoy the stairs or the actual walking. Haha. I felt so limp. The official TNT Victory Party was a blast, especially seeing little Lauren and her sisters in their matching dresses cutting it up on the dance floor with their parents and the many teammates from their area who fundraised and raced in Lauren’s honor. It was great fun dancing with my teammates too.

We danced until they kicked us out and then I made the decision to go to bed, it’d been a long day and I was definitely exhausted. I didn’t train enough for that fourth event. The next day we packed up our tri bags and bikes with Wheels on Wheels to return to San Diego and then headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for our remaining few hours in the city. We took in the otters, the jelly fish, and other creatures that we were glad to not know existed during our swim the day before. Quality time with the teammies and then Mother Duck sent us off on the shuttles to the airport.

“Wait, just because we finished our triathlon you don’t think we need guidance anymore?! No mentor? Coach? Coordinator? We can’t do this on our own!”

It was a sad moment indeed. We enjoyed the airport and flight as best we could in our exhaustion and sadness that it was ending. We’ve since returned to our day to day lives… some of us training more than others. A number of my teammates recently completed the Subaru Sprint here in San Diego, I was sad to have to miss it. Perhaps next year, I definitely want to keep up with triathlons… I need to get back on the water and keep running. I’ve felt awfully lazy without workouts five ro six days a week.

As a full team, we celebrated just a couple of weekends ago at our finale party. We enjoyed video slideshows of pictures and a fantastic video of our teammate Tim leading Knuckles, the hotel sports bar, in a couple of classic camp songs. We shared stories of our respective races and enjoyed the ever wonderful support and inspiration that comes from our Coach(es).

I miss them all so much, but we’re planning to go out singing in just a few weeks… Karaoke, here comes PGNT Alums, get ready for us!

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

Courtney’s mom set up a group a long time ago, where people can go to light virtual candles, think of her today… wear pink, light a candle, pray it forward.

I’ve been meaning to put up this song for awhile now…

The song is available exclusively on iTunes. More about the event and what Stand Up 2 Cancer is doing, visit http://www.standup2cancer.org/

The last day to register in California is October, 20, 2008.