The Invitation to Worlds

The email inviting me to become a member of Team USA and go to the Sprint Triathlon World Championships in September actually arrived about seven weeks ago, but I've neglected to start blogging about this huge journey for a variety of reasons (okay, excuses). I downsized and moved from the suburbs of Round Rock to the SoCo area of Austin, Texas. I had to decide whether I could afford to pay my own way to Budapest, Hungary, and buy the required uniforms. I had figure out whether bone-on-bone arthritis in one knee would cause enough pain to prevent me from racing. I had to find out whether I could make a come-back after taking the winter off from training. Yadda-yadda-yadda.

Mainly, though, I had to get my head around this huge opportunity. After all, I just finished participating in Season 16 of The Amazing Race on CBS, which I thought would be the last big adventure of my life. My granddaughter and I were the second team eliminated (which sucked until I renamed us one of the Top Ten). The brothers, the cowboys, and the models were the first, second, and third to cross the finish line at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. On The Amazing Race, we visited Chile and Mexico, and now I'm going to Hungary? Wow! How did I get so lucky? It's just too bad my granddaughter isn't going to Worlds with me. She's enjoying life in Anchorage, where her parents live.

World Championships! Sounds pretty impressive, right? I'm delighted to be going, but honesty forces me to admit that I didn't have to jump through the qualifying races that younger amateur triathletes do. After thousands of them compete in at least three races per season, the top 16 to 18 in each five-year age group are invited to represent the United States in these championships. However, in our entire nation, only 17 women, age 70-74, finished three or more races sanctioned by USA Triathlon, the governing body. Of those 17, I rank only number 12. My 70-year-old brother informs me with a snort that 82 men in our age group finished three or more races. I predict that he'll get his chance at Worlds pretty soon, but first he has to finish three triathlons this season. (He's training -- stay tuned!) I'm elated to qualify for Worlds but saddened that so few older women compete in triathlon. I hope this blog will encourage some to take up the sport.

Only a day or two after I received the invitational email, I impulsively committed myself to going to Budapest before I finished moving, learning the cost of the trip, getting my knee X-rayed, and discovering how hard a comeback is at my age. Now that I'm settled in my lovely condo, I'm busily fundraising, icing my knee, and working on my fitness, both physical and mental. For the past seven weeks, I've been mucking about with this stuff, but now I feel ready to keep a public record of what it's like to train for Worlds at age 72. This blog will keep me motivated and on task. I know because my earlier blog, Jody's GGTT at the Austin American-Statesman, took me from couch potato to finisher of 15 triathlons and contestant on The Amazing Race. If I'm out there in public, I'm honest and optimistic. If I'm isolated and secretive, it's easy to weasel out of workouts.

So, where do I stand with my training? I'm really just starting. I've raced more than I've trained lately. This past Sunday, I raced the Skeese Greets Women's Triathlon, taking second in my age group in a time of 1:40:34 for a 300-meter swim, a 10.5-mile bike ride, and a 2-mile run. I ranked 389 out of 426 competitors. Last night I raced the Splash & Dash in 1:04:30 for a 750-meter swim and a 1.8-mile run. I ranked last. Both races gave me a huge motivational boost because they were loads of fun and my knee didn't kill me. I rediscovered that I love to race, even though I'm slow. I get just as great an endorphin rush as the fast racers do. I train in a similar fashion, develop similar nutrition and hydration plans, cover the same distances, and consider racing just as much a part of my life as the younger triathletes do. It's no crime to be slow. It's just too bad I haven't learned how to go faster. Yet.

Today, I'm taking a rest day except for teaching senior aerobics and strength training for an hour this morning. Henceforth, I'll post my training and motivational logs so I can keep track of them and make improvements. What you write, you can right. What you hide, you can't abide.