I
was born and raised in rural Wisconsin with some great parents and a big
brother (Ryan). While my parents are not
competitive athletes, we were always a very active family doing all sorts of
fun things like sailing, camping, swimming, biking, camping, hiking, and
skiing. At a pretty young age, Ryan took
to the water and emerged as the athlete of the family. He was quickly recognized on the local,
state, and regional level. By the time
he was in high school, Ryan was swimming on the Junior National team and at
major competitions such as the Olympic Trials.
Trying to be like him, I swam from about ages 8-11 before realizing I was
terrible and hanging up my miniature Fondy Flyers swim suit.
I
found my own niche in the arts participating in music, drama, and dance. My one athletic endeavor was running distance
(cross country and track) for my high school.
I enjoyed running and showed some promise my first few years of high
school. In the off season I ran with my
dad every day and saw some serious improvement my sophomore year. Unfortunately, I became a bit obsessive. Reading running magazines, I adopted marathon
training plans without consulting my coach or considering the fact that I was
only 16 years old. Over trained, tired,
and anxious, I used food as a coping mechanism and gained about 20 pounds over
the course of one summer despite training upwards of 20-30 hours a week. My body and brain were toast and my high
school career was all but over. I still
ran cross country (albeit slower) but foot surgery my junior year and a slight
rebellion the next kept me off the track.
In
college, I put all of my passion into the arts, majoring in voice performance
with a minor in theatre. Completely
burnt out from high school, I abandoned exercise and on my own for the first
time, my eating habits fell apart. That
plus the addition of weekend “extracurricular activities” meant I gained not 15
but the freshman 20 … in ten weeks. Through
college I yo-yo dieted and occasionally worked out (though always obsessively
and never in a smart healthy way). While
it was one of the best experiences in my life, my low point was the result of a
semester abroad. I hurt myself soon
after moving to Salzburg, Austria which disallowed me from almost all exercise. I “had fun” and dealt with homesickness by “enjoying”
all of the rich local food I could get my hands on and drinking rich German
beer on a nightly basis. Upon arrival
home, I was nearly 190 pounds (and I’m a little less than 5’2”).
I
started to enjoy athletics a bit more my senior year after joining a weight
lifting and “multi activities” class, basically a kick in the butt workout class
taught by the school’s award winning wrestling coach, Kevin Bratland. In addition to getting stronger, I began to like
running again and starting swimming laps somewhat consistently for the first
time in over ten years. But more on this
in a bit.
After
graduating, things once again fell apart for me. I wasn’t admitted into a single conservatory
or graduate school for opera performance and I realized I had absolutely no
direction for the future. I took on
seasonal work which was a wonderful experience but proved somewhat disastrous
to my health as unlimited delicious but not nutritious food came with my
employee housing and the vacation culture led to a mass consumption of adult
beverages. By the time I decided to get
my life together and apply to graduate school (in music therapy this time), I
was once again as wide as I was tall with no self esteem.
I
joined a gym, started working out, made friends with a trainer, started
counting calories, and started to feel a bit better. In March of 2010, it came time to buy new
running shoes. As an employee was
helping fit me, he asked what I was training for. “Life,” I responded. Feeling dumb, I glanced down and noticed he
had on a shirt from a triathlon and I awkwardly blurted out, “well I’ve been
thinking about doing one of those triathlon things.” He encouraged me that it would be lots of
fun, packed up my shoes, and sent me on my way.
That night, I researched triathlons and decided I wanted to train for
one in Door County, WI. They only had a
sprint and a half iron distance. As a
former distance athlete, I decided the sprint looked “way too easy” and without
consideration to what I was doing signed up for the 70.3. The next day, I bought a swim cap and
downloaded a training plan. I was so
blind to what I was doing that it never crossed my mind that maybe I couldn’t
do it. I trained exclusively in a pool
(no open water) and on an indoor stationary bike (not even a real spin
bike). My parents bought me my aluminum
road bike a mere three weeks before my race.
I raced in a water skiing wetsuit, baskets on my pedals, no aero bars,
no fancy tri suit, and no experience. I
even took the time to sit down on a bucket and apply deodorant in transition! But I did it.
I finished in 5:46:26, well under my goal, and had a smile on my face
the whole time. Though I had planned to
only race once, I signed up for another race two weeks later and never looked
back.
Tune
in tomorrow for part two: And It Keeps Getting Better. I promise it’ll be shorter than this one (but
to be fair, I had 23 years to cover)!
Follow my adventures at https://twitter.com/tri_bailey
Bailey circa 2007
All smiles after my first race 
No comments:
Post a Comment