Years of Race Memories

A couple years ago Bill suggested that I use the laundry room shelves for my some of my awards. People used to ask me what I did with all the hardware I won. I only kept the ones that meant a lot to me. I was in there the other day folding clothes and was looking at them. What I remember most from these is not the actual race, but the friends who raced with me in these events. So I'm going to go through them as my way of remembering these people who I met along the way! Thank you friends!

Tashka Trail in Tuscaloosa, Alabama! Thank you Ed Freeman for encouraging me to do this race. We worked together at Wagner's RunWalk, and I got him interested in triathlons! 

USAT SMW Hall of Fame! Thank you friends on Team Aquaphor for nominating me for this amazing award. One of my best moments in all the years of racing! I choked up when Matt Brown read the letter that they wrote for my nomination. Steve Ford, Ande Wegner, and the rest of the team. What an amazing ride we had on TA!

Sunrise Triathlon Club Athlete of the Year! Thank you Angel Martin, Jason Riffle, Eric Sullivan - I miss you guys! Shreveport was good to me! What an outstanding group of people in this club!

Cobb Mobb Top Performer! Big thanks to John Cobb for running this team. What an honor to be invited to race for Cobb Cycling and Johnny Cobb. 

Ironman 70.3 Austin! First time to place in such a big race. This was an amazing girls trip with Deanna, Lesley, and Judy. My training partners from Hattiesburg. Strong women, and good friends. 

Turkey Trot from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We had just moved there and I felt the need to let people know I knew how to run! (heh, heh, heh). When I see this award I think of Ann Besanceney, an amazing woman who would have run away with this award had she raced that morning! Miss you, Ann!!

Disco Triathlon in Dallas Texas. Drove back to my home stomping grounds to race for Team Cambridge and see my long time friend and team manager Scott Eder. Surprised myself with this win! I think I surprised Scott, too!

Ignite SwimRun last year! I so wanted to do another one of these with my good friend Casey Lee. We have known and raced with each other for so many years, that teaming up with this amazing women is one of my best race memories in my life! 

The Power Mile in New Orleans! These awards will always make me think of the team at Varsity Sports! Racing with your co-workers for one of these coveted gorillas is a good, and painful memory. Covid cancelled the race this year, but hopefully it will be on again in 2021! Thank you Nicole, Brett, Kevin, Kyle, Meredith, Bud, and Chris for this memory!

Abitaman! This is a very old award, one of the first races that I ever won. My best memory from this race is about a girl that I helped just before the swim start, I don't even know her name. We were all lining up, and I showed her the best line to take to the turn buoy, it was her first race and she was nervous. Years later, (I think it was in Alabama) she came up to me told me the story. She was still racing and beat me that day! Good to help new people!

Heatwave Triathlon in Jackson, Mississippi! I raced in Jackson a lot when I lived there. I went back one year and saw some old friends, including Stacy and Roy Martin! What a memory with Stacy from a race when a man came out of the cornfields and flashed her during the race. She came back to the finish freaking out. Her boyfriend at the time Roy, and a bunch of other triathletes from Jackson raced back out onto the course to try and find him. Fortunately for him they didn't - a bunch of guys running down the street in speedos would scare anyone!

Sunfish Triathlon! This race makes me think of Casey Lee again! We have raced this one so many times, and always made sure to get our annual picture together. Love you Casey!! 

The 25th Bud Light Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans! 1990 and my very first marathon. It was a downpour and I remember running through foot deep water along the lakefront. I drove from Baton Rouge, where I was living, to my parents house on the Gulf Coast. They took me to the race and stood under an umbrellas and a bunch of spots along the course to cheer me on, and hand me bites of a Powerbar. I sure miss them. 

Ironman Florida! My husband Bill, and my mentee Margaret Lloyd! What fun training with a college student who is 36 years younger than me. I never thought I had another Ironman in my knees but after finding Hoka running shoes I thought I'd give it a shot. Bill supported me ever step along the way and was out on the course with Bogey to keep me motivated. Margaret and I built a friendship that I will always cherish! My Mentee and I both took 3rd in our age groups that day!

Possum Town Triathlon! Racing for the Cobb Mobb and having Bill there provided some great performance pressure at this one! The Mobb was pretty spread out over the country but this was one race where a teammate was there. Thank you Les Carr for representing!!

River Cities Tri 2007! I raced this event 22 or 23 times, this was the first time that I won my age group at RCT. Mary Tubb told me that it was "Big" to win here! I miss that girl, we trained together for IM Louisville. Some good cycling memories with her getting ready for that one!

Race of Grace! Won overall and had the company of my Hattiesburg girls! We all got up super early and traveled on race morning! Those were some fun days with D, Lesley, and Judy! Some good times in my life. When I did the Rock and Roll Half marathon in New Orleans they drove down and surprised me at the finish line! Beautiful and strong women!

I love seeing all these people in my memories when I look at these shelves. There are some other things scattered around the house as well that bring more people and places to mind. Definitely some Crawfishman awards and beautiful artwork, makes me think of Mark Salvetti, and Charlie Hoolihan.  What a great racing life I've had. What a great group of people I've had the privilege to know. What an incredibly lucky life I've led!