Brenda Herrington

The Grand Finale of all my training and camaraderie with teammates and fellow Triathletes over the past year came to be very memorable. Everything was lining up just beautifully and looking to be a day of non-troubles. We had friends and family down early who were there seeing if we needed anything; or just letting me daze as I either strategized or was lost in thought.

The morning came and we were off. I was kind of busy with getting the last minute touches down and was a little flustered when it was 6:30 and I kind of lost track of where friends and family were. Lining up again and I found everyone huddled as they were looking for me as well (amongst thousands and thousands of people on the beach nonetheless). We had our prayer; which included a lady who had lost track of her team and saw that we were going to have ours. God was watching.

I decided to place myself in front, right behind the pros. Off we go. Geez Louis. I can’t believe I wasn’t swimming on the bottom of the ocean – I felt like everyone was on top of me. It never seemed to get much better either. I was surprised to find that my time was like a 33 minute at the first lap; and now on to the next. It was a little better this time around but still had the occasional hand, arm or foot in my face. I don’t think I really ever had a rhythm. Fish out of water at 1:10 or so. Nice, that made me jog a little faster through transition. Who do I meet there – Clair. She said ‘Come over and sit down’, let me get you ready. Sweet.

Now off I go to ‘ride my bike.’ What fun. I had several talks and comments to God while out there. All of course so comforting. Felt 95% real good on the bike. Seeing my teammates and supporters along the way makes me smile. The other 5% was not so fun with the wind. Somehow I managed to figure out that I had done a sub 5 on the bike. Nice #2. Clair is in the tent again and getting me ready. Looking back, it was refreshing to know I had a helper who knew what she was doing.

OK, now the marathon. Let’s go get’m. Ok, well we’ll get’m bet maybe a little slower. Let the heart rate come down some. See some friends – always awesome. I kind of like this pace, then walk through the water station, and on and on and on. That made it relatively easy. Distance is now less than 6 miles and I’ve got some idea that I’ll make my overall goal of 10:30. I start pushing some and while I’m running with Shawn (he’s actually dropping me), I feel like Forrest, so I start the final 1.5 mile full effort.

I can see the clock ticking as I round a corner, and know I’ve got to keep the faith, I mean pace. I made it just under 10:15 (just like somebody thought I could). My final time was 10:14:56. I’m so blessed to have had that day to finish the season. This finale was awesome, but I also have to tell you that getting there was just as awesome.

Thank you especially to God for keeping me on all paths. To my husband, who I can’t tell you how much I love him for all his support this past year (and let me go ahead and say in advance thank you for the next season coming up – love you honey). And to my daughter, Lindsey. Being a triathlete herself, she has been my ‘go get’m Mom’ cheerleader; especially when she tells me to ride or run just an extra mile or so.  My teammates and training partners – Thank you!! And, I hope you’re ready for another year of it in KONA !!

Official Results

Brenda's Athlinks page: http://www.athlinks.com/myresultsadv.aspx?rid=35535097