Mortified: The definition made to feel uncomfortable because of shame or wounded pride. When I started this magnificent goal of finishing a triathlon, no one told me being mortified was an option. In fact, one of the multiple training books I looked through said, "Tell at least 5 people you are doing a triathlon. You are more likely to reach your goal." They didn't tell you all those people you told will ask you later how the race went. Another book said, "Don't worry, only 1 person comes in last, it is less likely to be you." A blogger wrote, "Train for flat tires, if you get one you will be thankful you know how to change it." Well, what about if your bike breaks down and it can't be fixed during the race? Who writes about that mental mountain to overcome? What if you C02 pump has a factory defect and won't work?
If you haven't heard by now, you guessed it. I landed in the 2% of all the racers at the Pigman Sprint not to finish because my bike decided it was time to take a break. After a great swim and transition, it happened. 14 minutes into my race, I got a flat tire. I pulled off to the side of the road. Maintaining composure, I began to change my tube. I pulled the C02 pump out of my pack. Jammed. No air. Switch the C02 again. Jammed. Changed it to my final C02 jammed. My fingers were bleeding from pushing and pushing the armed switch. 3 people stopped to help me. Nothing worked. A kind young women said, "hey you will be DQ for getting help from an outsider, but I will go get my air pump in the car if you want to finish the race." I told her, "yes and thank you." As prep to get the wheel ready for air pump....the hub to my quick release was gone! ARGGH! It had come off somewhere. Even with air, I wouldn't have been able to get the wheel back onto the bike. Mortified, mad, you name it.... I felt it. All the moments of preparation couldn't have prepared me for this experience. With tears in my eyes, I began to walk back to the transition station. Brenda, my boss at the Rockwell Rec Center, saw me. She had be standing across the street and few feet away and didn't realize it was me. When she saw it was me walking towards the crowd, she gave me a huge hug and said, "Go back put on your running shoes and finish the race, you will feel better." After finding Adam to tell him what happened,I did just that. Life Lesson One: We all have to move on after mortification. The whole time I was running, I keep thinking....what's the lesson in all of this?! Move on. Move on. Move on. It is all you can do when things like this happen in life and I did just that. Finally July 11th, at the Iowa Games I finished my first tri. No bike problems for me. In the end, the satisfaction of finishing was sweet and I sat back and was soo thankful for no bike malfunctions, but more importantly I gained lesson on how to move on past mortification.
Moving on in 13 things: This week google! Yep, the college did it. They switch our email to gmail. I was not a happy camper at first, but I have come to love and respect the gmail and its doc application. The google forms have been extremely helpful for my event registration process for service projects and collect information from student workers to issue dinners. I LOVE that it puts in into a spreadsheet for you and I can share it as a google docs.
Music for Ava: Ava's new favorite word is "duck". Please let me know if you know any duck songs. Currently, we sing Old McDonald had a farm with a duck as the animal.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment