Race Weekend

It has been three whole weeks since the race and still I am at a loss for words. I honestly didn't expect to have as much fun as I did. It's not even that nothing went wrong or that everything went right, because everything did go right and that made things less stressful. But it's that God definitely went above and beyond for this one!

Friday
I pretty much had not had any rest for about a month before the race. I was always extremely busy and everyday was the same thing- wake up, go, go, go until my head hit the pillow. I had zero time to breathe! So after a very stressful and busy week, heading out to Indio a day early sounded GREAT! We (Mom, Dad, & Grandma) headed out Friday evening and that's when it all started. The drive alone set the mood- dark nights and starry skies, warm wind whipping through the windows, blaring melodies of Bittersweet Symphony, and coasting at a slow 80mph. Once we got to the condo, all I did was lay in bed and make a Race-morning playlist to pump me up, and then I feel asleep. Not so exciting for some, but exactly what this busy body needed.

Saturday
After having to run a few errands, I ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the hotel in La Quinta to meet up with the rest of the team. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I was immediately pumped up. There were few parking spots open and almost every car there had a bike rack- it was triathlon heaven! Waves of people were buzzing around the hotel with all of their gear and I was completely overwhelmed with a sense of 'so, why haven't I done a triathlon yet?'

Our room was awesome and the beds were actually comfortable! As soon as the rest of the team showed up, we gathered downstairs for some lunch and shared our pre-race jitter dreams/nightmares. Some people were dreaming of 20ft waves in the lake, forgetting helmets (which is so against the rules), and getting lost on the bike ride. We all had some good laughs and the coaches assures us newbies that everything would run just fine!

After lunch we headed to pick up our race packets and timing chips. We spent time fastening our race numbers to our bikes and helmets and reviewing rules and regulations, just in case. I must say, we seriously have the best coaches! To ensure we weren't going to freak out, they took us down to the lake so we could get a feel of the place in advance. Now, most people were probably unaware that there was a lake in La Quinta. Yes, even driving right by it, I was unaware it was there. Who hid the lake? After finding the lake, we took a quick dip in the chilly water which definitely helped to clear the nerves for most of us. Besides the mentors and coaches, none of us were too confident about the swim portion. It turned out good though. Nothing to worry about... but drowning I guess.

Mom, Dad, Nicole, Micah, Katelyn, Grandma, and Aunt Kim came out to hang and get a feel for the place as well. We weren't too sure how big the race was going to be, where was the best place to park, or where the race was actually going to start. After figuring out the minor details, we headed back to the hotel for a quick tour and the laying of hands on me and a nice prayer from mom. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't at all nervous. I was way more excited than anything else. There really was nothing to be afraid of!

So Rosie and I were upstairs getting ready and we kept hearing people cheering really loud, which is awkward in a hotel. You would think someone would have come by and shut them up, no? So I peeked out of the door to the lobby below (all rooms overlooked the courtyard in the center... gorgeous). There was a huge soultrain-ish looking line coming out of the banquet room doors. ROSIE THEY'RE CHEERING FOR US!! Like children again, we ran downstairs to have all of the mentors and coaches clap, scream, give high fives, and wave plastic blow up TNT junk at us as we walked through the doors. It was awesome! I felt like I was walking onto the floor of the NBA playoffs as they called my name... minus the lights and music though. But that would have been way cool.

So, you know me and food.- we're tight. I was not afraid to be the first one in line to fill up two plates of food. In my defense one plate was small with only a few cookies. The other one was overflowing but that was the point! I just told everyone that I burn calories really quickly and I needed to make sure I had enough for the race tomorrow... ... =) I don't know if anyone believed me, but it was actually somewhat the truth! During dinner, our team manager had a nice speech and a slideshow for us. All together I believe we had 55 athletes from our team and the Los Angeles team along with all of the mentors and coaches. Triathletes are crazy, most of you probably assumed that already, after all, we swim a good distance, bike and un-Godly amount of miles, and finish it up with a run? Why? Exactly what I was thinking. One of the craziest actually was Audrey Duffy. Audrey was our inspirational speaker for the night and she did exactly that. Just hearing her story brought tears to almost every eye in the room, yes even the boys. She was diagnosed twice with stage 4 Leukemia. I have no idea how anyone would be able to get through the realization that they're about to die... TWICE! And she is alive and well and kickin' and screamin'! She is a firecracker for sure.

After the dinner was a quick awards ceremony in which I got recognition for being the top fundraiser from both teams combined. (I do want to point out that there were 46 of them and 9 of us and we had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place fundraisers. Yes, we rock!) It was awesome not because I won or anything. It was awesome because I was able to hear and see the the reward of helping to keep someone alive, healthy, sane, happy, and pain free! It was really tough and stressful at times trying to think of ways to raise money and wondering why it was so hard for the 200 people I sent letters out to just send back 20 bucks. Don't eat out Friday night. That's it. Once a year, don't eat out. If all 200 people donated their $20, we'd have $4,000 easily. Sigh. But we made it to the goal thanks to all of you who stepped up and allowed God to use you. A special thanks goes out to my top contributors who donated insane amounts of money. I truly hope that you all understand that any amount, big or small, means so much to these victims of blood cancers. They are so sincerely thankful for all of you!

So after the dinner it was time for bed and for once I didn't feel bad for my gluttony and then falling asleep! OH it felt lovely! After packing everything up and laying out our race day gear, Rosie and I headed off to a much anticipated slumber.

Sunday- Race Day
This is where it gets tricky to really express my emotions that morning. My alarm went off and I swear my head bounced off of the pillow and I was immediately awake and dancing around singing Kelly Clarkson's Since You've Been Gone. I actaully do NOT like the song, but for some odd reason I could not get it out of my head. So that was the theme song for the morning. Apparently Mentor Rich loves the song so he enjoyed my uppity entertainment so early in the morning.

Possibly Rosie might have thought I was on drugs. I wouldn't blame her, poor girl. I'm thinking that I was a little too excited. It was 4:45... which again because of the time change that day was really 3:45am. Yes. A little too early to be so awake. Apparently our head coach, Coach Super Sally, was in the room next to us and immediately knew it was me next door. I have the effect on people. What can I say? We turned on some music, danced around the room munching and getting everything together, and headed downstairs to meet up with the team. Nothing exciting to talk about but a TRIATHLON!! So pumped, can't even tell you.

Unfortunately I had been having some foot problems that week. Out of no where on Monday my foot was absolutely killing me. It was painful to even walk so I kept it wrapped and iced all week. Needless to day, I was pretty peeved because that meant I couldn't work out the whole week. Even that morning my foot was killing me. I didn't let it get to me too much though because I already had it made up in my mind that I was going to finish, even if my foot did break off. So I popped a few advil and headed out.

Limping and all, we packed up our cars and headed out. I would say one of the greatest feelings was the drive to the lake- pitch black (my favorite time of day) and music set to max volume cruisin' around knowing that there was nothing in the world that I would have rather been doing. I'm thinking that the only thing that can beat that excitement would be my wedding day. It was amazing.

We pulled up, took a hike to the transition area to set up, and prepared ourselves mentally for the ride of our lives. As we walk into the transition area, there were rows upon rows of racks, which can be pretty tricky when coming into transition. Many people tie a balloon to their spot or chalk the ground at their row so they know where to go. Nope, not me. Why? Because my rack was the very first rack!! I could not have had a better transition area, let me tell ya. I had my iPod all ready with my inspirational/pump me up music but quickly realized that God was on my side! I didn't even need to listen to my mix because the speakers were blaring Coldplay (my favorite) and Bob Marley (another one of my favs). Seriously, things just kept getting better and better.

After setting up, we got inked, which was just our race numbers written on our arms and legs with permanent marker, which rubbed off before the race even started... not so permanent huh? Alonda, Rosie and I figured since we had two hours to kill, we'd stand in the bathroom line. Now it's really important that you "go" before the race, otherwise it can be a little uncomfortable during the race. Luckily I had no problem with that, but air around the line was rather unpleasant and there had to be at least thirty people in front of us and another 15 behind us. So in my attempts to lighten the mood, I began taking pictures with random people and giving them names. Why not right?

Ok so fast forward. We're all ready and in our wetsuits. The first wave has gone and we're lined up to start. The five of us in our particular wave stood die-by-side holding hands as the official counted down.

FIVE!
OMG Ashley what did you get yourself into?
FOUR!
Well, too late, just go for it. Don't forget to breathe.
THREE!
If Audrey, Tony, Rob, Natalie... if they can all make it through chemo and live with the side effects forever, you can make it through a silly triathlon that will be done in three hours!
TWO!
You can do this, Ashley. You can do this. You've been training for five months for this very moment. THIS moment, right now, THIS is it. Make it count!! You didn't almost kill yourself for nothing... so GO!!
BANG!
Ahh I can't see! Stop crying Ashley, you're fogging up your goggles dangit! Be excited but don't be a baby. It's not over yet!

I was an emotional wreck. But I pulled it together and headed out with the masses of purple-capped women into the lake. Of course, we had to swim out to a buoy that headed straight into the sunrise so no one really knew where they were going. Now, it's pretty common for you to get kicked in the face and have women grabbing at your feet. After all, you are swimming with your head down and you can't exactly see where you're going. Fortunately for me, I somehow ended up at the outer edge of the crowd and pretty much swam alone the whole time. My swim time was 25:39, which is way faster than I thought it would be. I was really thinking that I'd be in that water for around 45 minutes. Sweet!! I was in such a daze I was singing songs in my head and just feeling the rhythm, rocking back and forth, being soothed by the steady cadence of my breathing. It was actually pretty darn relaxing considering I was racing! I just kept telling myself that I was half-way finished with the race after the swim. I wasn't at all worried about the bike or the run... just the swim.

I flew out of the water and headed towards transition, peeling off my wetsuit as I ran. I threw on my shoes and helmet and zipped out of the gates. The ride, ah the ride =) It was gorgeous. They looped us twice in a clean flat grid that felt like it was downhill both ways. I was passing a bunch of people until I got into my groove with some legit looking cyclists. It was freaking awesome! I spent the whole time just admiring God's beauty. We rode by an orange grove that smelled like a soap factory. It smelled so good I couldn't help but smile. By the end of the race, my back was aching pretty good (I need to be readjusted to my bike). I was ready to finish this thing! I was ecstatic with a time of 1:07 for the ride.

Unfortunately, as I was coming back into the park, a car wasn't paying attention and started to pull out in front of me. It threw me off and of course, I enter the exit side and everyone is yelling at me that I'm going the wrong way. Luckily a nice TNT fan ran onto the course and lifted the divider for me to ride under. God bless him because I could have been screwed. I made it in and threw on my running shoes and bolted out. The run actually sucked. While I could no longer feel my bum foot because it was still frozen from the swim, I could tell the pain had caused something fishy in my knee. Great. So on top of the run now being partially on sand/dirt, which we really only trained on packed dirt and asphalt, my knee was not agreeing with me. Fortunately for me, I found a nice pace keeping up with some 56 year old man who was actually a pretty cool dude. I kept pace with him the whole was and we chit-chatted to make the time fly by. After my first lap, in attempt to high-five the family from the sidelines, I almost ran through the finishline like an idiot. I got yelled at again by the crowd and it all worked out fine. The last lap was killer! I pushed through it and finished with zero oxygen left in my lungs.

I couldn't breathe partially because I just finished a triathlon but also because I was so emotional. I JUST FINISHED A TRIATHLON!! It was bitterweet for sure. Although I was overwhelmed with all of the hard work, physically and mentally, that I had to endure, I was also overwhelmed by the fact that I have met so many amazing people through it all. I couldn't help but think how boring my Monday nights and Saturday mornings would be without training alongside 25 other people, all together to accomplish the same goal, urging each other on and encouraging each other. Each person was racing for different reasons- some had family members or friends with cancer, some had cancer, some just really needed to overcome weight issues, some just wanted to prove it to themselves that they can conquer anything they put their minds to. And here it comes, my signature phrase, I cried for every person that crossed the finishline. Everyone laughed at me, but I totally did. There's was an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, pride, achievement... it's so fulfilling to see everyone triumphant and just stoked to be DONE!

After getting hugs from the fam and taking plenty of pictures, I took a look at the board with all of the times posted and for some reason, I had a 3 next to my name, as in third place. Naawwww. No way. There's no way I could have gotten third place! So we all waited around for a while until they got to announcing my age category at the awards ceremony. Sure enough, "Third place, Ashley Thompson from Fontana, California." Holy Crap!!! I practically ran up there to get my award tile and take my spot on the 3rd place podium. Sally told me I need to make a speech so when it got really quiet and everyone was taking pictures, I took advantage of the moment to publicly thank Team in Training and the wonderful coaches and mentors and managers =) Good times.

We finally packed up our stuff and headed back to the hotel. I made a quick stop at Farmer Boys to hang with the family a little as they ate lunch. I was so happy to have them all there to support me. I snagged Brianna and Taylor and we went back to the hotel to attend our Victory Party... which was barely a party. I was very disappointed in the party aspect, but there was a ton of Mexican food and it was all you can eat. So I ate all that I could possibly eat. After the food, we all hung out at the restaurant in the courtyard because it was free happy hour. Although I only had a few, it was really fun sitting around with the whole team laughing, joking, and getting to know more about them outside of training. It was the perfect and relaxing ending to a very exciting weekend.

I woke up the next morning and drove straight to get an hour and a half massage and well, the rest is history.......

Thanks so much for caring. Thank you for wanting to share in the celebration of a new chapter of my life. I love you all =)