And here is what I have to say about it:

“There is nothing wrong with having options in the sport.” 

What I meant is: It’s great to be able to do a long distance race that is not put on by Ironman and thus doesn’t cost a fortune. But it’s not just nice to have this option. I think it’s necessary if we want to see the sport of triathlon growing in the right way. It’s a difficult topic and I am going to save
my other thoughts for a later blog post.

“The competition out there between both men and women was great.”

That’s not quite what I thought I said. The point I was trying to make was that the guys out there were super nice and supportive. Which isn’t always the case. Both Brian and I, who have met at various races, were cheering each other on. And all of the other men out there were equally supportive. Which was a nice change. I felt like we all wanted to see each other and not just ourselves succeed. And it was a good feeling! The girls out there were fantastic as well of course but they always are…

I did have one guy who I passed say to me: I HATE YOU! And then he added: In a good way. It made me smile. 

“At the end my plan was to just count to 20, start over, count to 20 again and keep doing that until I made it to the finish. I didn’t want to think about anything except pushing it to the line.”

Not so much. That was definitely not my plan. I mean: What kind of lame plan is that? Truth is: I had to shut my brain off if I wanted to make it to the finish line in one piece. Plus, I was getting tired of telling myself over and over again: Just put one foot in front of the other. Which, obviously, is way too long anyway, so for short I just kept repeating: Foot. That got old pretty fast. But not as fast as you might think. It’s called: I am about to lose my mind. So that’s when I started counting. At about mile 25. But my brain couldn’t make it past 20. So counting to 20 again and again it was. Maybe next time I should have a plan. 

According to Jarvis, now that her children have started school, triathlon is her life again. 

Well, not quite. Triathlon is a big part of my life but it’s certainly not my life. And, in case you are worried, I did not send both my little boys off to some boarding school. So I am still a mom for more than half the day. And I am a wife as well. Not always a great one but I try. I definitely have more time and freedom now which is why I would like to tackle the long distance stuff again but, again, triathlon is not my life. Although it might seem like that at times.