Saturday, September 29, 2007

Big Bad Mo

Hey, all! I'm momo, or Big Bad Mo as my family affectionately likes to call me.

I am the wife of Big Jand mother to two pretty cool kids, Little J and Frankie. I'm not all that big or anywhere near bad, but the nickname seems to fit these days, you know with me being all Iron and all.

I am what you'd call an adult onset athlete. I didn't start when I was younger. In fact, as far back as I can remember, I actually hated running. I would do anything I could to get out of it. Throughout high school, I was a cheerleader, and in the small town in New Mexico where I lived, cheerleading was considered a PE credit, go figure.

Well, it wasn't like we were slacking off every day - we were like picking each other up, tumbling, practicing our cheers. That sure sounds like PE to me! So, when we moved to Korea my junior year, and I started school at the only high school for military kids there was in Taegu, imagine my horror when they told me that they couldn't accept my four semesters of cheerleading as my PE credit.

I was going to have to take PE. With all the freshman. Needless to say, I passed on that joy my junior year which left - you got it - me as a senior, taking PE with all the freshman. For the most part, it was ok, however one of the things we had to do was take the Presidential Physical Fitness test, which included running a timed mile.

I had never run a mile before. I was fairly certain I couldn't run a mile and I'm sure I even told this to the PE teacher. But, as luck would have it, they weren't buying it and I had to, along with all my freshmen friends, run the mile. It wasn't pretty. It was like 15 minutes. I'm not joking. Thank God it was under whatever the cut-off time was, though, and I didn't ever have to do it again.

So, when I say I hated running, I really, really did.

Fast forward, I'm married, I have a baby, I need to get back into shape quickly because I've just gone back to a very busy job, so I start running. In my mind, it was the fastest thing I could think of to do that would get me home in time to get the baby up, get ready for work and get going.

And suddenly, something happened. I didn't hate it anymore. Suddenly, the time to myself was like a gift. In our lives, we have so many things pulling us this way and that, but when I got out on the road to run, it was just MY time. I started to look forward to it. Running did great things for my body, but it did even better things for my mind.

And, in typical momo fashion, I decided that simply running was not enough, I had to run long. I had to run far. I had to run marathons. And when I'd done that a few times, I thought - what the heck, I'll learn to ride a bike and do some triathlons, that'd be a good challenge. And when I'd done a few triathlons, I thought I need to go farther. I need to go longer. I need to do Ironman. And so I did. And it was amazing, incredible, life changing. So I did another. And that one was even better. And now I'm going for my third.
Ironman has shown me things about myself that I never knew. It showed me that I am strong, that I am determined, that I can achieve anything I set my mind to. It has brought me friends and more friends and training partners who are incredible and who enrich my life each and every day. It has given me a confidence in my ability to tackle just about anything, and I hope your journey there does the same.

Saddle up, my friends, its going to be one helluva fun ride!!

7 comments:

Dances with Corgis said...

Ahh, see, I just complained on your momo site that I felt left out and came over here and actually enjoyed this little writeup :) Now I feel all sheepish. Nice learning a bit about your history as an athlete!

Di said...

Great post Momo.
And what DOD system wouldn't take cheerleading as PE credits?!?! The travesty of it all.
Look at you now.
;)

Duane said...

Great post, it's nice to learn more about you. So what's up after Ironman #3? A double IM? :-)

bigmike600 said...

Wow. Pleased to meet you and the fact that you have done 3 IM's is totally inspirational and AMAZING.

I can hardly wait to get in shape enough to attempy my first in 09.

Supalinds said...

Very nice to meet you! Great post. You are s super woman...I look up to you :)

I look forward to getting to know you better.

Your family is adorable.

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

Hi! Momo!
Love your story about suddenly loving running after kid #1... funny how, while they are ADORABLE and perfect in every way, we are willing to pound the pavement for 4 hours just to get a break from them!
Wait, did I just say that out loud?
;-)
Jenny

Scottie said...

What a inspiration you are to people like me. This is so great to be able to talk to someone with the motivation and the drive to do 3 Ironman WoW!! I will be asking you some questions for sure.