personal best....(another mama power article!)

[runner-mom]

I love coming across "mommy athlete" articles in magazines.  I found another one in my latest issue of "USA Triathlon Life"  (summer 08) and wanted to pass it along :) (now i just wish i could find local mamas like this in my area!!)  Enjoy!!! 

Triathlons are a "personal best" sport and so is life

By Stacy Brocker

What's more challenging than being an average, run-of-the-mill-type person training fora triathlon? Being an average, run-of-the-mill-type person training for a triathlon with four very small children. And, by very small I mean ages 6, 4, 2, and 4 weeks old.

I am not an exercise enthusiast who goes stir crazy if inactive. I actually hate to workout, but I came to love the results more than I hated the working out. Okay, I admit, after a while I caught the bug, and I do enjoy it, too. But the effort it takes to get four very small children anywhere and keep them occupied is the biggest challenge to overcome.

My triathlon story started when I got married nine years ago. My husband trained and competed in a few triathlons. He would wake up at 4:30 a.m. to get in his workouts before heading to his full-time job and then college - also full time. I was a hard worker,but that schedule just seemed crazy. Plus, I didn't know why you would work so hard to compete in something if you weren't going to win. Personal accomplishment didn't cut it for me.

Fast forward to two years ago when one of my long-time friends, a competitive triathlete, and her Ironman husband stayed with us before competing in a local triathlon. We wentand cheered them on and they said, "Hey, you should do this next year."

My response: "Not only can I not do that, I don't even want to."

After that, I was working out regularly - nothing spectacular, just trying to get in three days at the gym. I was so bored. Then, the same friend called me up a year ago and asked if I would relay an XTERRA triathlon with her. I used to mountain bike but I hadn't been on a bike since I had kids. I mean, you're forced to give up all your hobbies when you become a mom, right? I told her I would think about it, and the next thing I knew, she had bought me a year membership to USA Triathlon and registered me for both the XTERRA and my local triathlon.

So I set out to follow her training plan. Several weeks into training, I found out I was pregnant with our fourth child. We had been trying for another baby, so we were elated. I was also excited about completing my first triathlon with my baby along for the ride. During the pregnancy, I completed two sprint triathlons, a 10-mile mountain bike course for the XTERRA and a running relay race. My sneaky triathlete friend, my husband and my kids were proud, but my family and friends disapproved. Regardless, a huge, healthy baby was born Jan. 31, 2008.

This season I didn't want to train alone because, frankly, I wasn't sure if I would follow through. Ironically, I craved the personal accomplishment feeling that I once thought was not enough. I wanted to be around other competitive moms who worked out, but I didn'tknow of any. My friends were so negative that I was usually drained of all energy by the time I left them. Comments about my thin figure were drenched in censure. When I was asked how I stayed so thin, I eagerly started to share but was cut off by: "I can't do that" as the conversation shifted to diet pills.

Can't do that. Really? Because there are people with no legs who do that; there are people with cancer and people in their golden era who do that. Can't, or not willing to even try?

So I launched a plan. I emailed a persuasive letter about the feeling of personal accomplishment, taking charge of our lives, and being a good example to our kids. I emailed every mom's group and every mom I knew. Since I had only lived in the area a year, I didn't know most of the 200 women I emailed.

Of the 200, a group of 15 emerged. We became the Mighty Mommies. We meet every evening and bring our kids to the workouts. The kids swim with us in our lanes as we do laps (my newborn sits and watches from his carrier on the pool deck) and they play on the field as we run the track around them. We meet at a park with a playground twice a week for our bike rides and pay a babysitter to watch the kids. Of course, there is always a chance of only getting in half your workout because someone started crying, but hey, it's better than no workout.

Most of these moms have never done a triathlon before, but they are showing up for every workout and they have registered for races. My great joy is seeing my new friends excited about their personal accomplishments. True, I once thought those feelings were unimportant. However, the older I get, the more I understand the need to love yourself and not seek worthiness from others. Triathlons are a "personal best" sport and so is life. I am so proud of these Mighty Mommies, and I am thankful that I found the type of people I wanted to be around. I am in control of my life and my accomplishments - with four small children cheering me on.