One of the keys to balancing the various competitive demands for our time is to over-communicate it with your family (including unborn children). When I planned this season, I spent a lot of time talking it over with my wife and making sure we managed conflicts with kids’ birthdays, family events, and of course, any “girls’ weekend” that she had planned. This first race of the year in Bumpass was very important for me. It was the first triathlon of the season, my first olympic distance race and my first competitive open-water swim. I had trained hard the prior two weeks to overcome trips to Europe and California and prepared as well as possible. Come close to race day, the only potential hiccup we saw was that our yet unborn son would decide to arrive early and I spent a lot of time whispering to him to “stay inside” until at least Saturday evening…
Making the Triathlon a family affair
In addition to communicating and agreeing to our priorities with my family, I always try to get my kids to participate where I can. Through the winter we often took bike rides around a local lake close to the house. As spring arrived, and they saw me practice my transitions, they often joined me in sprint races down the driveway and we “raced” until they won (Admittedly at times I was so tired that they actually did beat me). As this race was close to the house, we talked about it and they agreed to and were excited to come and see me race. Frankly, the only difficulty was to explain to them that daddy probably wasn’t going to win…
The kids made signs for me!
The night before was exciting. I prepared my race kit, packed my bags, rehearsed transition, the kids made cheering signs, my brother and his fiancee planned travel logistics for them, we all went carb-loading and my wife tried to keep our unborn-son safely in the oven. I was excited and nervous at the same time and barely slept that night and as soon as my alarm went off that morning I jumped out of the bed and was out the door in mere minutes due to my OCD-like level of preparation the night before.
When we arrive to the race site, we noticed significant chop in the water which worried us a bit about the swim but preparations went well and my family arrived shortly before race start. The one wonderful thing that children have taught me is how to put things into perspective. Though I was quite nervous before the race, when I spent a few moments with them before the start it helped calm my nerves and realize that what was important is that I got to share this event with them more than racing itself. The time passed quickly and before I knew it, the gun start signaled the beginning of the swim in the beautiful, yet rough setting.
A successful finish of the race for all of us
The race went by in a blur. The swim was hard as the rough waters hampered sighting and the waves rendered breathing difficult. After swallowing a bit of lake water, I switched to the bike allowing me to bring my heart rate down and fuel up on liquids and nutrition. The second transition was the highlight of my race. The kids were right next to me and cheered me on loudly as I changed into running gear and I took a few seconds to give them high fives. To see their faces as they cheered and taking those few seconds to recognize them made their day and frankly was the best moment of the event. 6.2 miles later and I crossed the finish line rejoining my proud family and friends. Little did I know my day was long from over…
After the race, life returned to its routine. We ate a bit and drove back, the kids wanted to do some sprinting in the driveway (ouch), I had a load of sushi for dinner (an excellent recovery meal I might add) and after checking the data from the race I went to bed at 9:55PM promptly falling asleep by 10:00PM, exhausted and thrilled about the day. I’ll always remember my wife waking me at 10:05PM that same night wondering what could possibly be so important to wake me up from such a sound sleep. It turns out that though my unborn son had answered my prayers to let me race before he came out, he was now ready ready to join the excitement. By 10:15 we were in the car heading to the hospital.
The excitement of the day was irresistible for our third son who joined us shortly after the race
Though I managed to find a bit of comfort in a wooden chair, the night went by quickly and before we knew it, a very healthy boy was born Sunday morning. The excitement was of course intense but my stamina was running slow and after making sure everyone was all right, I looked at my wife who took pity on me and told me to go get some rest. By 7AM, after checking up on our two sons at home under the care of my mother, I finally found some very welcomed sleep. What an exciting day! Obviously if I can do a triathlon, bring a child into this world and sleep less than 4 hours in 3 days, I so can do an Ironman!
Balancing life’s priorities between work, training and family is a complicated affair but involving everybody is the key. I’m not sure how often I rubbed my wife’s belly whispering to our little one to stay in until after my race, but his answering my requests proved the point that one had best include everyone in the decision chain…
