Tonya
Before you read the rest of her story you have to know...
Tonya ran in the 2006 Portland Marathon, did awesome, considering she ran with a messed up knee, stressed ankle and in desperate need of an inhaler. Our dear Tonya is currently in a walking cast trying to heal the ankle which they first thought was broken... we'll see after she gets back from walking all over New York and gets to the Dr... what a nut. But oh well... that's Tonya.
Though she's a little bummed... she is planning her strategy on how and what she will do when she is recovered... just wait and see.
This is Tonya's "Wicked" race story
"My day started at 3:30 AM, when in my dream, someone mentioned the word REPEL which woke me instantly. (I had just flipped almost upside down the day before when practicing ropes for the race and could just see it happening again 100 feet up.) We got to the race start at about 6:15 and started staging all our stuff. I've done triathlons for the last couple years but this kind of race has so much more gear to organize. Since this was the first adventure race for our team, we looked around and got ideas from other teams. At the pre-race meeting Shane (the race director) said that we were going to be cursing him out because of the surprise in the repel section of the race. I have never been so sick to my stomach before a race. I was already so stressed about repelling off a building and now there was this huge surprise. All I could think was that it was going to be higher than they said it would be.
We did the short run at the beginning and then got our kayaks down to and into the water (those things are HEAVY!) That section was really long. It down poured on us and the wind was blowing whitecaps against us during the second half. We had sunscreen burning our eyes and we were laughing so hard we could hardly paddle. GOOD TIMES!!! I did, without thinking, strap Ken's backpack on his kayak BEHIND him. That meant he had no access to any food or water during the entire paddle section. I felt terrible. I won't make that mistake again.
Inline skating was slicker than snot. We walked in the grass when it was too steep to go up or down on the road. That section really would have been pretty easy if it wasn't for how slick it was. We all came close to falling more several times and one of us even went down a couple times. All in all, I think we were all still feeling pretty good by the time we got on the MAX to get back to "base". Keep in mind that this entire race up to this point I am still literally sick to my stomach about the repel coming up. (It's not like I've never repelled before either. I actually really enjoy it!)
At this point we got to choose whether to do the "trek" section or the "repel" section. We chose to get the repel over with. As soon as we walked up to the parking garage and I saw that it was about what I had originally expected I actually relaxed a little. It was still a nine story building but compared to what I had built up in my mind that really wasn't too bad! Karin did trade me packs because for some reason mine was WAY heavier and I'd never repelled with a pack on before. I've also always had something to prop my feet against while repelling so the gaps between floors were interesting until I figured out how to kick off down to the next floor. (The first gap I found myself spinning around facing away from the building.) We finished that, ran over and did the stair climb, (the wonderful 15 story "surprise") and ran back to base to drop our repel gear and start out on the trek.
The trek was the first time I started to feel a little tired. I am a runner, not a walker. It really is different work for your muscles and it just plain takes longer. It was better for the team as a whole to walk the trek, but it just about killed me off. By about halfway through, the fronts of my thighs were on FIRE! I also had just gotten trail shoes for this event (for some reason we all thought we'd be trekking in one of the larger parks) so, by this point I couldn't think of too many places on my body that didn't hurt.
Last but DEFINITELY not least was the bike section. It started out just fine. A few checkpoints in town then we started uphill. We even said "you know, this really isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be". But something happened somewhere along the line because the hills just got steeper and longer and they were never going to end and I started thinking "am I going to have to walk my bike?" and "can I even finish this?" We finally made it to the top. But I was my own worst enemy because I just couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that we had to go back down and then come back up another hill just like the one we had just done. I just couldn't believe it. On the way down we were discussing which route to take to get to the next checkpoint. The choices were a longer more gradual route, or a shorter steeper route. I said I really didn't have it in me to do any more of the steep stuff but...... I got out voted. I was MAD. I'm laughing now, but I was MAD! I felt like I could have done ANYTHING else, run 10 miles, ride 20 flat miles, anything but more hills. (I'll be doing much more hill training for next year!) About 3/4 of the way up the next hill I said "I thought I said I couldn't do anymore of this steep stuff!" A couple minutes later I had an asthma issue. I stopped, used my inhaler, actually even fought back tears!, regained my composure and kept going. With every peddle stroke I thought "DON'T QUIT", "DON'T QUIT", "DON'T QUIT". I envisioned going back to the race start and admitting that I quit and how disappointed with myself I would be and how defeated I would feel. As we got closer to the top I thought about how great it was going to feel to go down.
When we were almost down, I asked Ken if we could make the time cut off and he said "No". Then, a couple minutes later he said that we might be able to if we had it in us to push ourselves. So we did. We "flew" to the last check point (with the exception of catching my front wheel in the MAX line and almost getting run over) , and then sprinted on our bikes to the finish. When we got there, they said we made the cut off by 14 seconds! (which later we find out to be 14 minutes.)
I had just a few goals going into this race. 1 - Finish. 2 - Finish within the allowed time limit. 3 - Don't get short coursed (when you don't make it to certain checkpoints by a certain time they shorten your course to help you finish on time). We reached every one of those goals. One of the biggest adventure racing lessons I learned (besides train harder) was that the person with the passport (the booklet with all the checkpoints on it) has to communicate with the navigator. We came dangerously close to missing a couple of checkpoints because I assumed the navigator saw them on the map. Really, it was my job as the passport holder to let the navigator know what to look for. Lesson learned.
At the finish I told Shane he was a mean man for planning that bike route. His answer to me was "this isn't called WICKED Adventure Racing for nothing!" In reality, I'm grateful that it was such a challenge. It's only been the last 2 1/2 years that I've sort of checked back into life and I've been pushing myself to new levels constantly. This was a HUGE growing experience for me. Everything else I've done until this has left me wondering what my limit would have been, how much more could I have done? It's really the first time I've felt like I was at my limit and I'm really proud of myself for pushing past it.
As soon as I got back to Seattle, the next day, I signed up for the Portland Marathon in October (my first full marathon). I took one week off and since then I've been training like a crazy person. Training has taken on a whole different meaning for me. I don't just want to finish the marathon, I want to do good in it. And next year, when we do this adventure race again, I want to reach the finish line and still have to wonder where my limit would have been.
"Thanks Ken and Karin, I love you guys!"
Alpine Lakes Wilderness Girls trip June 2005
"This was my first backpacking trip in 20 years. I had only gone once before and have been CRAVING it ever since. Being up in the mountains is a total escape for me. I can leave all the stresses of life behind and just heal my soul. I have a lot of nervous energy, and when I start out I'm still amped up from life. It's almost a race to get there. But once I'm at my destination and camp is set, I can finally start to let down and take it all in. When I go with just girl friends I only have to worry about myself. I'd love to go with my kids too but it wouldn't be quite as restful and rejuvenating. I'm an early riser, so I love to sit at the edge of the water early in the morning when no one else is up and just "be". The beauty and serenity surrounding you is incredible. It's like with each deep breath in it calms my soul and fills me with a peace that I don't get anywhere else."
"As for the hiking itself, I love a physical challenge. Sooo, the more challenging the hike the happier I am. I LOVE anything off trail. The rougher, steeper, less maintained, more obstacles, most remote, the more I love it. Day two of our trip was a great challenge. There was a little bit of everything I love. And to do that with people who love the same things just made it that much better. Also, watching some who were up there for the first time and sharing that experience with them was priceless."
"The first few days back home I was still on mountain time. Everything in life was at a new slower pace. Everyone could rush around me and I felt unaffected. Within a few days however, the fast pace of our life pulls me back in. Even now though, I'm able to take a deep breath in and put myself back on the edge of the lake, or the side of the mountain and feel that calm in my soul just for a moment and that will get me through till next time."
~ Tonya
For more on Tonya, here's her personal success story:
"It was just my older brother and me growing up and I followed him EVERYWHERE. Through the woods and up the trees as kids and right out onto the football field with all his buddies as a teenager, (almost always the ONLY girl). Needless to say I was very active and very thin. THEN !
One month before I got engaged to be married I went through a trauma that made me pretty much lose my mind for about 5 yrs. I was very depressed and very inactive and got quite heavy for my 5'3" frame - pretty much a mess. Just about the time I regained my sanity I started having children - again unable to really take care of me, too many others to take care of.
Finally, when my youngest was about 3 years old I started to be able to focus on me a little. I started by reading a weight loss book that just really clicked for me. I changed the way I ate, thought, and even lived. I got active and I started to believe in myself again. I started with just walking. My goal was three miles a day (which I couldn't do at first). It didn't take too long though before I joined the gym and was able to run three miles on the treadmill. I usually worked out with a friend at first that was in a LOT better shape than me and she'd push me to run faster and even got me up to 5 miles occasionally. When it started getting warmer outside I tried running in my neighborhood. TOTALLY different story to run on the road as apposed to a treadmill. I could only get about 1/2 mile before dying. I kept pushing myself though and by summer ran in my 1st 5K. I LOVED IT! Another friend ran it too and had so much fun she started looking into sprint distance triathlons. We did one as a team (more to check it out and see what it was all about than anything). I did the swim and the run and she did the bike. We trained all summer and by September we both did the Reebok women's triathlon (although it was the shorter version) We also recently signed up to do the Danskin women's triathlon this summer (2005) which is regular sprint distance.
When I was a teenager I went on a 3 day 18 mile backpacking trip with a friends family and literally cried all the way home. I just LOVED being away from "civilization". Now, since I'm finally in the shape to do it, when I look at the mountains I'm just itching to climb over them, to look down from the top of them and to see what's on the other side. I'd been stranded in the city for some time, fortunately for me I have Karin. She's promised to take me on some of her adventures, she actually took me on a small one already. A little scrambling (I think my favorite thing in the world), a little repelling (really scary at first, then just plain fun) and a teeny tiny bit of climbing (hmmm - don't think we did enough to really decide what I think - have to try some more).
At this point I've lost a total of 60 lbs and my focus is more on training than losing weight (although the weight seems to keep coming off anyway). I really want to try a lot of different things. I'm doing the Reach the Beach (104.6 mile) ride with Karin this spring (again 2005). One of my goals is to get into sprint distance adventure racing and Xterra triathlons. I also really want to complete an Olympic distance triathlon eventually. I figure as long as I'm training for events I will stay in shape and I just feel sooooooo much better this way.
I feel like I just woke up after being asleep for 15 yrs and there is sooooooooooo much new stuff to do!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Tonya before...
and after
Tonya and Karin successfully finished the Reach the Beach May 14,2005, and will do it again! For the story and photos click here.
Other latest successes for Tonya are: Mt Adams TWICE one weekend 2007, Mt Rainier/Camp Muir 2007, Rattlesnake Ridge 2007, Yellow Aster Butte 2007, Hoodoo Peak 2007, Mailbox Peak 2007, Enchantments 2006, Domke Lake 2006, Alpine Lakes Wilderness Girls trip June 2005, Cape Alava, Wa July 2005, Danskin Triathlon summer 2005, Munson Madness winners Oct 2005, Harrisdirect Seattle Marathon Nov 2005, to name a few with many more to come...
