Twas the night before St. Anthony's

THE NIGHT BEFORE ST. ANTHONY'S

Twas the night before St. Anthony's

And all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring,

not even a spouse.

The bikes were all racked

in transition with care,

in hopes that a good race day

soon would be there.

The children were nestled

all snug in their beds,

knowing that Papa

would be there instead.

With I in my bracelet

and chip timer strap,

I had soon settled down

for a few hours' nap.

When out on my nightstand

there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed

To turn off the chatter.

When what to my wondering eyes did appear

but excitement and happiness

And no longer fear!

I gathered my backpack

my towel and Gu's

transition mat, (no wetsuit)

sneakers, bike shoes.

My helmet, race numbers

and my body glide

prepping my mind

for this wild ride.

I jumped in the car,

the stereo thumped,

I sang loud and hard,

to get myself pumped.

And soon there I was

with transition still dark,

my age on my calf,

my body marked.

The sun started rising

just over the bay,

I put on my swim cap

and got on my way.

I stood on Spa Beach

and it called to me,

the ocean, the waves,

the sparkling sea.

The national anthem,

Swimmers gathered around,

Last minute chatter,

The horn ready to sound.

In just 30 seconds,

It would be my turn,

the countdown's begun

and my face starts to burn.

I zero my watch,

And play air guitar:

Happy racing to all!

And to all, NEW PR!

It's Triathon Day! And a Triathon Day Sigg Water Bottle Giveaway too!

++This giveaway is now closed++

Today, perhaps right now, I am racing!

I have my race packet -- purple swim cap included! My number is: 454.

There is my stuff all packed and that's the awesome transition towel I got in Miami, I LOVE IT!! Is it not the cutest transition mat ever???

It is officially the start of triathlon season and I'm doing the Escape from Ft. DeSoto sprint triathlon! Which means I was very likely up at 3:30 a.m., eating my bagel with peanut butter and Polaner All-Fruit in strawberry and drinking coffee (I'm getting nervous just writing this - my fingers actually just went numb! They went numb again when I was editing this post!)

And then it is quite possible that we left before 4:30 to get to transition by 5:15 because we like to get the good spots on the bike racks and have time to decompress before things get started.

This is the most excited and confident I've ever felt for a race yet! I've done the course a zillion times and I'm no longer worried about the swim. (Until St. Anthony's that is, I have some angst about that one but let's focus on one race at a time, shall we?)

And while we're at it, let's celebrate the start of tri season, shall we?

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

Have you heard about "Planet Gear"? It's a really cool website that just launched and they want to give YOU a present!

The website offers exclusive online deals for all sorts of different products, for a limited time, but only for members. Anything from outside gear to trips to books, it depends on what special they're running and when! You can only get in on the specials if you're a member and if you refer your friends, you give them an automatic $10 credit. If they buy something, YOU get the credit too.

Today Planet Gear is giving one lucky reader a pair of really cool Sigg Water Bottles, a set for mom and babe! Pictured are the Summer Breeze and the Little Monkey, and they're really cute and BPA FREE! Because who doesn't want to be stylin and profilin while they're hydratin'.

One of the cutest things I've seen in a long time is a line of clothing called "Mountain Mama," which is for expecting outdoorswomen! How unique and awesome is that?? That is what the next sale is going to be. And the pictures of this maternity-wear are adorable!

So. Wanna win??

The rules for this giveaway: 

• 1 entry: Leave a comment! That's all! Tell me about your current hydration vessel!
• 1 extra entry: Go check out Planet Gear. Tell me what you see there that you like!
• 2 MORE entries: Better yet, sign up! You'll get great inside scoop on specials on gear, clothing, books and more and you can opt out at any time! It costs you nothing to sign up.
• 1 more entry: Become a fan at Planet Gear's Facebook page 

Make sure you leave a comment for each entry!

This giveaway will close Friday, April 22, at 11 p.m. ET. The winner will be drawn via random.org and announced on Saturday!

See you on the flip side, with hopefully an awesome race report!! Good luck to Christy, Lisa, Brooke, and Ashley, among the so many people racing!!  GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!! Sending you good race thoughts, most definitely we will all be up ridicu-early and I'll be thinking of you!
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Disclosure: Planet Gear has agreed to giveaway a set of water bottles to a random reader. No monetary compensation was received. The opinions expressed belong to me.

Mantra Monday: Believe

Do you ever have a post in your head, words to write, but you can't get them out? They're swirling around in there in no certain order?

I'm hoping I can make a post out of this.

We'll see when I get to the end.

Look at our awesome tri group up there, those are the Tri Warriors.

They push me to train hard. They push me to keep up. They push me to believe.

In the last chapter of my latest freakout on myself (There is no Spoon), I had gotten to the point where I was tired of saying "I can't" and making excuses for myself. I was tired of holding myself back. I was tired of not believing in myself.

So, during the week I put my Mantra to work. "There is no spoon."

Whenever my mind would wander to "I can't do that..." or some other variation of such sentence, I'd finish it with, "Well why the hell not?" Those boundaries I had in my mind (certain predetermined miles per hour for running or biking or times or lengths for swimming which were "safe boundaries" for me), I erased them. I wiped the slate clean.

Yes, over the past couple years I've certainly come far and certainly pushed my boundaries (going from couch to whatever..) and I see that. I'm thrilled to be doing what I'm doing and breaking through the previous limitations I had set for myself.

But no matter how far I get, I notice that I never fail to make an endless list of excuses for myself. For why I don't think I'm good enough or for why I can't keep up. Back when I was told I was crazy for setting my sights on a triathlon, I did it anyway. But now that I'm doing them I want to do them well and no one is telling me that I can't do them well. EXCEPT FOR ME. Plenty of people can say something to you about what you're able to do and make limitations for you but YOU are the only real person who has control over whether or not you listen and whether or not you follow it and it's YOUR VOICE that speaks the loudest.

And what is that voice saying?

"I'm not built for running... short legs... my torso isn't big enough, something to do with the breathing and lung capacity, not a swimmer, I can't do that blah blah blah blah blah."

Honestly, the chatter in my head is exhausting and really quite ridiculous, really.

Last week I told myself to just shut my hole already.

I can't take it anymore my head hurts I'm sick of hearing the excuses I'm sick of talking bad about myself I'm sick of talking bad about myself to others I don't deserve that no one deserves that the chatter is too loud and frankly it's just exhausting to hear it over and over again!

So after the "There's no Spoon" post, I settled on one word.

Believe.

Amazing things happen when you believe.

Amazing things happen when you believe there are no boundaries.

So here are some things that I couldn't believe but after a week of no boundaries, I do. And you can picture a "sassy" me doing my best Martin Lawrence impression at the end of the sentence when saying, "Buh-LEE DAT!" (or "believe that!" in 'non sass') And maybe some snaps in a Z formation too..

I can't believe I was going 23 miles an hour, for a while, and I wasn't going downhill! Buh-LEE DAT! (snaps here.)

I can't believe I swam, stopping only while my goggles filled up with water, in water over my head, for a while, without freaking out about the fishes or breathing or anything! Buh-LEEEEEEE DAT!

Also I can't believe I did it confidently strong and somewhat fast! Buh-LEEEE DAT!

I can't believe I can feel stronger when running from my core and that all those minutes (hours?) of plank and pushups are paying off! Well Buh-LEEE DAT!

I can't believe that fear is dissolving and excitement and adrenaline is replacing it! That the child-like fearlessness is renewing itself! Buh-LEEEEEE DAT!

I can't believe that I'm starting to see lines where abs should be! Buh-LEEE DAT!

Honestly, it's scary to believe that you can do anything. Anything is a much larger vastness than a safe predetermined boundary.

When you look off into the distance toward anything, it's daunting! What will you come up against, what's out there trying to thwart you, and then, what happens after anything? More of anything?

Everything takes practice, perhaps believing in yourself takes practice too.

I also think it takes getting mad at yourself first. And me and myself had it out last week.

I'm glad we did, too, or I'd still be shuffling along wasting time and making excuses.

At the very least, anything you do should begin with believing in yourself.

I think I'm up for it now.

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What's your mantra this week? Join me on Mondays when I try to start the week off right (or make sense of the complicated!)

Leave your mantra in the comments or post about it and leave the link in the comments below!

Mr. Crab

Swimming with the skeeve is getting a little easier. Mostly because I'm getting faster but also because I'm just trying to shut up.

Cause in the past, I've been wimpy.

I've shunned the causeway for a swim because of the murk and I'm not really a big fan of the sea grass and the spiny sea anemone plant thingies that you swim over because let's face it, stuff hides in there and I don't like when stuff hides.

But I'm deciding to suck it up and deal because paying $8 every time I want to swim at the official pretty "beach" of Honeymoon Island is a little ridiculous just to avoid my skeeve factor.

I mean, just suck it up girl. It's all water. One just costs 8 bucks.

So today I went with the girls, both of whom think the water is just fine and one of them even thinks it's beautiful! And yesterday the water was crystal clear, no murk involved at all and if I was an avid snorkler, I really would have been in heaven. Because it is rich with sea life in there. (I'm the short one on the right in the picture by the way in case you were wondering.)

And I'm trying to be one with God's green earth, but I'm still a little jumpy in there. I see a big round flounder-looking fish just sitting there staring at me and it makes me jump 5 feet and then I feel stupid for jumping 5 feet for a nice fish and I keep swimming.

Then I swim some more and a few small fish dart away from me and their motion makes me jump 5 feet and I feel stupid for jumping 5 feet again for nice little fishies.

Calm down, already.

Save that jumping for the big mean ones.

So then we get to the turn around point and I turn around and come back and as I'm swimming I'm looking down at the ocean floor which is all sea grass and those spiny-looking plant thingies and some big conch shells that are moving and the occasion beer bottle (which really pisses me off) and then I look down and I see him.

Mr. Crab.

And he's huge and he's really freakin' pissed off that I'm swimming over him.

He is literally standing on his little tiny legs in the middle of the grass looking at me with those beady little tiny black eyes and he's reaching up at me with his big claws snapping away at me furiously as I swim over him and I am just out of his reach because we are not swimming in very deep water.

Snapping away furiously!

I mean, HE IS PISSED!

The vision of how pissed off this crab was still makes me laugh! He was really trying to get me!

Thank goodness I was out of his reach though because I'd have some pretty deep gashes in my wetsuit if I wasn't.

But boy was he mad!

I mean, please.

Like me and my wetsuit are gonna do anything to you, Mr. Crab.

I almost didn't even see you! I was just minding my own p's and q's! No need to be hostile!

Someone needs some anger management classes.

Gawd.

So I laughed about his little angry personality on the way back and how funny it looked then got jumpy about some other big round fish that was just sitting there staring at me as I passed (same one perhaps?) and I felt stupid and all of that and then said, "Decide you want it decide you want it decide you want it," which I do, then calmed down and finished up the swim. Still waiting for the ability to turn my brain off.

On a side note, I am finally officially bilateral breathing! I would never have known what that meant either because I was never a swimmer in my life so unless you swim, you probably don't care either, but it means I have learned to breathe on both sides which means every 3 strokes. Breakthrough!

It used to be every 4 strokes and only on the left and I'd be totally out of breath because it was too long in between breaths. But every 2 strokes was too short and the short breaths made me feel like I was hyperventhilating.

But three is juuuuuust right.

It only took about 4 swims in the pool where I drank the entire pool trying to breathe on my other side before I finally got it but it's so worth it. My point is that it not only makes me faster, but I never have to stop because now I have enough breath and that helps in dealing with the skeeve factor too.

Hooray!

Anyway.

That is all.

Oh, the kids have a huge spring festival today at their school where each class takes a country and performs a song dressed up in the country's theme and then we taste the food from all the countries. It's so fun and all the classes go all out, we've been working on it for weeks.

My 3 year old's class has the Phillipines and my 4 year old's class has North America and his whole class is dressing up like Abe Lincoln.

20 TINY ABE LINCOLNS! Even the girls!

Imagine how funny that's going to look! I'm dying inside just thinking about it!

OK now I'm done.

Really.

Signed,
Still a wimp, but getting better.