A WHOLE Conversation!!!

Last night my husband and I hosted a party for about 50 of his employees here at our house. It was a stressful week for me. I was very busy trying to prepare and make it a nice evening on top of 11+ hrs of training, caring for my 3 boys, and throw in a Stress Echocardiogram to rule out pulmonary hypertension on top of that.
Needless to say, I am very glad it's over and today is a nice relaxing Sunday at our house.
The party was fun. However, the most notable thing for me to share is that I actually had one whole interesting conversation about----Triathlons!!! At Mark's company party!? Wow. I was psyched.
Last week the headline of our local town paper read: Norway to host Annual Triathlon!
I almost dropped to my knees. I was half overjoyed and half heartbroken. I did know this might be coming. I had heard rumors and even talked to the man who is overseeing it all. However, to see it in print as the Top headline of the paper just threw me into a tizzy. You see, this is not an extremely active town. Many in my neighborhood know me as, "the one who runs." I live in rural Western Maine. The area needs a serious kick in the a-- to be honest. There are many many inactive and unhealthy folks in this part of the state. It's sad. I am determined to one day change that. I'd like to turn my passion into some type of job some day and help get some people into an active lifestyle out here.
I strayed for a bit but you can see why the notion of a triathlon here in Our town (ok, the next town over but it's all one big area that joins together) just made me giddy.
The sad part is we can't do it!!! For the next two years!!! The race will be held on July 19th. We will be in Lake Placid, NY with my dear friend (you all know her as Mary: Ironmatron) and her family registering for IMLP 2009! I'm totally psyched for that big weekend but now I'm sad to miss this. Very sad. There just aren't enough weekends!!!
Back to the party and my "conversation."
A man who has worked for our company for years and his wife came to me and asked if I would be racing in this new Tri. I told them why. ( I will try to get over the fact that when I mentioned registering for an Ironman they didn't even flinch.....that will come later I imagine. Just weird though isn't' it?) George then spoke about seeing me running up our hill-several times- the other day and actually asked about that workout!! (note my last post) He then told me about the time he did the Tri they held here in the late 80s and early 90s! I had no idea he had ever done anything like that! He told his story about being prepared for the swim, or so he thought, but when he got out there he was overcome by fast swimmers and had trouble swallowing water and choking etc. He told about how he talked to himself and convinced himself he could continue. He got on his bike and actually passed people. He then went on to say that the "most amazing feeling" was coming down the hill on Route 119 with the road lined with people screaming. "They were all screaming for me!" :) We talked about that being a big reason that these sports are so "fun." The feeling you get when you over come the low point in a race to come back with a high point. There's nothing like it. They agreed. This couple would both like to get back into physical activity. George talked about making it a regular part of the day. It has to just be an automatic thing you do at a certain time each day regardless of how you feel. YES! He said that when he was running before and felt bad some days, he would just run shorter. But he never regretted getting out there. You never stand in the shower post-run and say, "I wish I hadn't done that." They are considering making a team to do this event in July. I will be so proud of them. I hope it will get a lot of people excited to get active.
I was thrilled to have this conversation. They were genuinely interested in talking about this sport. It made my night!
check it out:
www.norwaytri.com