Keep On Going

We are standing on the jetty screaming "KEEP GOING"
"GO!!!"
"COME ON MONIQUE, DON'T QUIT"

We are watching Monique struggle through the swim portion of
the Hammerman Triathlon.  She kicks ass on the bike and run,
but keeps hitting a wall on the swim despite her training.  She's alternately
swimming and stopping and we can see she's psyching herself out.
Sometimes it's all mental.

Stacey:  Am I doing this?
Me:  I think you are.
Stacey:  I don't have anything else to wear.
Me:  I'll watch your stuff and give you my tank top.

Stacey peels off her backpack, lays it on the beach,
and puts her camera on top.
She looks up at me and grins her wide wide smile, takes
a deep breath and wades into the water.  She's fully dressed
and laughingly mutters "Great, I have purple underwear on"

She swims out to Monique and I hear her say firmly
"Put. Your. Face. In. The. Water. and Swim"

The other athletes are out of the water and I can imagine
it is disheartening, but Monique swims.  Stacey swims
along side her and the guy in the kayak has paddled up
next to her.  I hear him chiming in too- "You can do it!!, keep
going!"   When she occasionally stops, Stacey alternates
encouraging words with strings of curses and it seems to
work.

And
Monique
Did
It!!

She runs out of the water as I frantically click the
shutter on my camera.  We are the only spectators
left on the beach and I'm jumping up and down
wildly cheering.
Auggie is jumping up and down
too. Monique runs up the beach, up the
stairs to transition.

Stacey wades out of the water, a little bedraggled, shirt dripping,
purple underwear showing, grinning from ear to ear
and laughs WHAT ABOUT MY PICTURE??


Last out of the water by about 20 minutes, M. kicked
ASS on the bike and was only a few minutes behind.
She kicked double ass on the run and came in ahead
of a handful of people (impressive)

The moral of this story is that I know some amazing,
strong and lovely women.  The three of us couldn't
be more different, but we met training for our first
triathlon, and have found lots of common ground.

These are women that would I would trust to
 'hold the rope'.



.