Happy 4th of July! This is such a fun weekend for us, Ron's family has a reunion/cook off every year on the fourth. It's always a great time, a weekend with family filled with lots of laughs and a ton of great food!

Last Thursday when I checked training peaks for my weekend work outs I couldn't believe my eyes. Saturday was a 6 hour brick (2000 yd swim, 3 hour bike, 2 hour run). Are you kidding me? Am I ready for that??? In addition to that, our cook off team was scheduled to serve lunch on Saturday. Now how am I going to get a 6 hour work out in and make lunch for 57 people? LOL! After a few text messages, we were able to swap our lunch for dinner that night. Now back to how the heck am I going to get this work out done? In addition to Saturday's work out there was Sunday's 3 hour brick (2 hour bike, 1 hour run) and Monday's 2 hour and 20 minute brick (2 hour bike, 20 minute run). OMG! Can I do this? Of course I can....

First, I made a pact with myself to attack one work out at a time, I was not allowed to think about the next day until I finished the work at hand. Still, Holy Crap!!! On Saturday, everyone was  planning to meet at the Park at 5:30 am to swim, bike & run. Thankfully Judy was also scheduled to do the same work out as I was as her half Ironman is in 2 weeks, so we decided to stick together. I can't begin to tell you how important that factor was going to be in my success for this workout. She was a true god send! It really does help to have friends who share the same goals as you to do this with.

I felt great during the swim and the bike, nutrition was spot on, I had plenty of energy and when we came in from the bike I couldn't believe how good I felt, I definitely had a run in me. Judy and I changed our shoes, strapped on our water belts mine filled with water, powerade and honey stinger waffles. The first hour & 20 minutes of the run were great and I was still feeling strong at mile 8. The sun was starting to come out and it was getting hot, I went through all of my water and filled up again at the next water bubbla (that's Bostonian for water fountain). At mile 10 we passed  Joella and Jeremiah, we high fived each other and kept on running. Soon after that is when I hit a monster wall...it was like falling off a cliff how sudden the drop in energy was. At an hour and 45 minutes self doubt started to creep in to my head. I kept trying to shake it off, telling myself I can't say I did this huge work out unless I do it and you already have 5 hours and 45 minutes in, you are not giving up now! Still my pace was dropping off dramatically and I just wasn't sure where I was going to get the energy to finish this. Then Judy started to pull away from me on the trail and I kept trying to catch back up to her. Finally, she circled back to get me and said, we have 6 minutes left...you can do anything for 6 minutes. She was right, we finished right by the lake. We took our shoes off and headed for the water....Aahh!! Thanks to Judy and my determination not to quit I finished a monster work out. Sure I couldn't form a full sentence when I was done and I'm pretty sure I was completely delirious for 30 minutes following the run but I was done! I also have to mention how grateful I was that Ron waited around for hours after he finished his work out to take me home....which turned out to be the best thing as I'm not sure I could have actually driven a car!

Judy & I decided to stick together for the rest of the weekend. We met up with Alice, Toni and Cheryl on Sunday to ride for 2 hours and then we ran an hour. On Monday it was just the two of us, we met for an "easy" 2 hour ride with hills and 20 minute run. I just have to say that Judy is going to do awesome at her event, she is so ready for it! I learned so much from her this weekend.

Well, I made it through the weekend- we travelled 108 miles on our legs this weekend 88+ miles on the bike and 20 miles of running.

Having friends to work out with really makes hard work outs so much nicer and it's easier to get moving when you know someone is meeting you.  Surrounding yourself with positive, encouraging people who share similar goals with you is key. When you start to doubt yourself, they remind you of how strong you are.  Having a supportive family who made me feel like a rock star after each  workout is priceless! I really am so blessed!

This weekend made me even more confident that I can finish a half Ironman  - I am really doing this thing!!