Perseverance Defined

I've really had to hold on tightly to the hand rails on my stairs while trying to descend the last few days. Apparently running for 2 hours when your quads are seizing with every step causes some pretty good muscle damage. Ouch.

So I was really patting myself on the back for winning the Perseverance Award over the weekend... until I heard Jenny's story.

Jenny is my friend who has a 17 month old daughter who I trade off child care with so we can each get some extra training in during the week. She also flew over to the Big Island to do the 70.3 on Saturday. She was psyched. And ready. Woohoo! Let's rock!

I didn't see Jenny during the race, but to be honest, I wasn't really looking. After I finished though, I did start wondering where she was. Later in the day I ran into another friend of mine who told me that Jenny had crashed. Oh no! Amy told me that Jenny still finished the race though so I figured it must not have been that bad of a wreck.

But then I called Jenny to get the story.

Jenny is covered with road rash. Like a hamburger, she said. About 10 miles into the bike, she was flying down a steep hill at about 35 mph when two men tried to pass her at the same time. One of them got way too close to her and when his rear wheel clipped her front wheel, she went tumbling like a rag doll down the hill. She said her helmet crumpled in the back where she hit her head on the road.

It gives me chills even to write this. And the worst part? The guy who clipped her didn't even stop.

I hope that guy gets what's coming to him. Karma, please do your thing.

Jenny said another athlete stopped and got her out of the road and called for the medics. She stayed on her back on the side of the road for 20+ minutes trying to regain her senses. And then after the medics bandaged her up, she got back on her bike and finished the race.

That girl is amazing. Of course it took her forever to get through the rest of the race, given that her body was shutting down on multiple levels... but she had come to the Big Island to finish the race, and finish is what she did.

Of course now she's in a whole heck of a lot of pain as her body is dealing with recovering from sliding down a hill at 35 mph, and her mind is dealing with not having the race that she had trained so hard for. What a major disappointment. No one thinks that something like that could happen to you out on the race course... and it is so sad when bad things lke that happen to good people.

So clearly, Jenny wins the Perseverance Award for the weekend. Jenny, I hope you heal quickly.