As the air SoCal air started to
cool from late Summer to Fall 2010, Ironman Arizona was quickly approaching and
I thought up an opportunity for some amazing mother daughter bonding, “Hey mom,
do you want to drive out to Tempe with me a couple of days before the race?” Marion would not be able to miss work to
drive out with me, and I wanted a partner in crime if any funny business came
up. Also, I thought it would be a
wonderful chance for my mom and I to spend some uninterrupted time together,
and nothing spells out QT than a road trip in the desert.
My mother has four children, and
had to schlep us all over the planet to zillions of practices, games, meets,
cheerleading competitions, etc., for the better part of her adult life, so I figured
why not one more sporting event where she could just relax and come along for
the ride. Thankfully, she said, “yes,”
yay!
My mom is the most beautiful woman
I know. Marion is very excited about his
future, because lucky for both of us, I look a lot like her. However, there is much more to my mother than
her gorgeous exterior, she is brilliant, hard-working, and an eternal optimist. More importantly, she has been a tremendous
role model to both me and Mary, because after my parent’s divorce she went back
to college, while raising four children between the ages of 8-16 on her own,
and became an award-winning high school English teacher. I have to admit that I used to find it
aggravating when she picked me up from Junior High hours after the bell rang
because she had to work, but I was always proud of her, and grew to appreciate
my after school adventures in the library.
I now completely understand the heroics it took for her to hightail it
from work thirty minutes away from my school in order to pick me up, because in
turn I have had MANY nail-biting moments racing up the 405 freeway from my old
office in Santa Monica to pick up Hannah from Daycare in Encino during rush
hour traffic, not fun. I am one lucky
girl to have had her in my corner through years of intense club soccer teams,
broken basketball dreams, and the current pep infused phone call I make before
every marathon, my mom is simply the best.
My mom’s house is on the way to
Tempe, so it was easy for me to swing by and pick her up before we headed east
for our mother/daughter adventure in the desert sun. Throughout the six-plus
hour drive, my mom and I talked about current events, my brothers and sisters,
and lots of triathlon Pro talk. I told her all about Hillary, naturally, as well as
the greatest triathlete of all time, Chrissie Wellington. Chrissie had won the Ironman World
Championships in Kona from 2007 – 2009, however she had to bow out on race
morning in 2010 because she was incredibly sick, but vowed to make her come
back at Arizona, which meant we would be on the course together! The following morning when I was in line for
packet pick up, my mom was standing just a few feet away
under a tree, when a sinewy, tan and ripped arm slid in front of me and said to the
volunteers, “Can I check in quickly, I have to hurry on to the pro panel.” I
turned toward my mom, my eyes bugging out of my head, heart pounding through my
small-chested chest, and mouthed, “That’s Chrissie.” She laughed, understanding
right away what a HUGE moment that was for me, and told me later in her
classic, adorably sentimental voice that seeing Chrissie was a sign of exciting
things ahead for my race.
I could never convey to my mom how
special those two days and nights were for me to spend with her, just the two
of us, in Tempe, AZ before the most significant race of my life. I had not only physically prepared for this
Ironman, but I had invested time, energy, money, mental and emotional fortitude
in pursuit of this singular goal, and to have my mom there with me gave me
breath in my lungs to enjoy it all.
Love it! Can't wait for Part 2. :)
ReplyDelete