When Cathy asked me if I wanted to do the Philly Tri Rock Sprint as a Relay, I had just completed the 26 mile Tour of Lebanon County and was feeling strong on my bike for the first time in 2 years. I hesitated, not being sure what to expect of myself after 2 years out of the game recovering from injuries, but eventually said yes. Cathy would do the swim, her friend Diane would be doing the run, and I was invited to stay with them in the Philly suburbs the night before the Event. I was looking forward to doing an event with my sister as a team! Being an Independent Distributor of Yoli, I chose "Team Yoli" as our group name, and ordered Yoli Give Make A Wish T Shirts for us to wear after the event. I thought the Tri-Rock pictures would be a nice way to give recognition to Yoli partnering with the Make A Wish Foundation this year.
I was nervous about going to the City by myself, we go often but David always drives and I hate city driving. But I have a Nav in my car, so what could go wrong? The forecast for 100% chance of rain was a bad omen but we hoped it would hold off until after the early morning race was over.
I planned to park in the Please Touch Museum parking lot, which was supposed to be near the Expo Tent to pick up my race packet. After a pretty standard drive on the Schuykill to reach the city, I did get turned around once but finally reached Smith Field where the event check in was located. I had envisioned reaching the Museum, parking, and then finding the Tent. But my Nav took me in the back entrance and and the tent appeared first, so I grabbed a spot where some other people were parking along one of the side roads near the tent. I wasn't altogether happy with my location on this small one way street in the park, but I was tired of driving and didn't feel like navigating around the park again to find a better one.
After checking in and picking up my race packet, I meandered around the expo waiting for Cathy to arrive. I didn't hear from her, but her friend Diane texted me that she had picked up her race packet and was headed back to the house. I decided to go to Diane's place, since I hadn't heard from Cathy and was getting hungry. After entering the address in my Nav, I headed out to meet my hosts for the weekend. While driving down the highway, I was attempting to put up the rear windows which I had left cracked; when the passenger side window didn't seem to go up I glanced over my shoulder to see what was wrong. It was then that I noticed someone had smashed out the window and stolen my briefcase from the center section where I had situated it, thinking I was being safe to move it out of view from the front seat. Of course a wave of shock came over me, and I said some choice words upon realizing I had been robbed. But I was driving on a busy 3 lane highway, and could not immediately do anything about it so I just kept driving. Within a few miles I saw a Philly cop who had someone pulled over, and stopped to let him know what had happened. He said to call 911 and file a police report when I reached my destination. I asked him to radio in an alert so that the patrol who was currently working the area might be aware there were smash and grab burglaries occurring at the event grounds. I then made a list of all the important things that were in my briefcase before getting back on the road.
After leaving the busy highway, I called a friend who had written me a check and asked her to put a stop payment on the check immediately. As soon as I arrived at Diane and Eric's house, I was on the phone putting a freeze on my business checking account because the blank checks were in my briefcase. Diane came out to greet me, and I had to break the news to her while I was on hold, apologizing for arriving at her doorstep in Lockdown Mode with an emergency. After several phone calls to cancel and freeze various accounts, I introduced myself to Diane and met her cat Rose. I then began the task of cleaning the broken glass out of my car, which had infiltrated the open duffel bag I had tossed my clothes in for the weekend. As I can usually find a moment of humor in just about any situation, Cathy's husband Mike watched as I began laughing hysterically after accidentally sucking up a pair of brightly colored thong panties into my host's shop vac. I contemplated letting it go, but eventually decided to open the shop vac and retrieve them. I was afraid Eric might get in trouble months down the road, when Diane discovered some random panties that were not hers upon emptying their shop vac. I was happy to see that the thieves had not taken the wine I brought for Eric and Daine, and at least I had my clothes. I felt lucky that I had my wallet with me, and that I was not personally injured during the robbery. Eric, who is an engineer, did a magnificent job of patching up my broken window. With the main tasks completed, and the police report filed, we could finally enjoy a lovely pasta dinner.
After dinner I went upstairs to lay out my clothes for the event, and realized that I hadn't brought my Tri bag in the house. I had a sinking feeling, but went to see if I had left it in the car. At that point I realized that they had stolen my entire Tri bag which had my bike helmet, shoes, jersey's, rain jacket, gloves, basically everything I needed to do the race. The bag also contained my Yoli Give T-Shirts that I had ordered for our team. Hopefully, the thieves had earned themselves some bad Karma by messing with someone who was trying to give acknowledgement to a company for partnering with such a great charity. Fortunately Cathy had brought all of her biking stuff because she was doing the olympic event the next day, and we wear the same size shoes. Luckily I had also packed an extra biking outfit.
After a fitful nights rest, I woke up before my 5am alarm and got ready for the event. While getting ready, I also realized my sports bras were in my Tri bag, so I had to borrow one from Diane (or wear my Victoria's Secret push up bra under my jersey with the questionable zipper that had broken that morning). We learned the swim was cancelled due to the heavy rain, so Cathy would have to do a 1.5 mile run instead of the swim. At this point, I thought to myself: maybe I was not meant to do this event, nothing has gone right this weekend, maybe I should just give up and go back to bed. Sometimes you have to wonder if every obstacle that appears in your path is just a challenge or if it is a warning. But my feisty nature would not let me cave and we departed for the race, me wearing Diane's sports bra, Cathy's bike helmet, shoes and gloves, and my Jersey with the broken zipper.
Even though the radar showed rain encompassing the area, the roads were dry for my ride. As soon as I took off on the bike leg of the Tri, I saw a girl holding a sign that said "Ride Like You Stole Something". This gave me a surge of anger adrenalin as I remembered that someone out there had all my stuff. Despite being exhausted after getting only 5 hours of sleep, I turned in a respectable average of 16.11 mph. I was happy to have completed the event safely despite all of the set backs. Enjoying a weekend with new friends and family helped to take the edge off of the disappointing and stressful way Friday had started. And the best part was that I did get to do an event with my sister!
I planned to park in the Please Touch Museum parking lot, which was supposed to be near the Expo Tent to pick up my race packet. After a pretty standard drive on the Schuykill to reach the city, I did get turned around once but finally reached Smith Field where the event check in was located. I had envisioned reaching the Museum, parking, and then finding the Tent. But my Nav took me in the back entrance and and the tent appeared first, so I grabbed a spot where some other people were parking along one of the side roads near the tent. I wasn't altogether happy with my location on this small one way street in the park, but I was tired of driving and didn't feel like navigating around the park again to find a better one.
After checking in and picking up my race packet, I meandered around the expo waiting for Cathy to arrive. I didn't hear from her, but her friend Diane texted me that she had picked up her race packet and was headed back to the house. I decided to go to Diane's place, since I hadn't heard from Cathy and was getting hungry. After entering the address in my Nav, I headed out to meet my hosts for the weekend. While driving down the highway, I was attempting to put up the rear windows which I had left cracked; when the passenger side window didn't seem to go up I glanced over my shoulder to see what was wrong. It was then that I noticed someone had smashed out the window and stolen my briefcase from the center section where I had situated it, thinking I was being safe to move it out of view from the front seat. Of course a wave of shock came over me, and I said some choice words upon realizing I had been robbed. But I was driving on a busy 3 lane highway, and could not immediately do anything about it so I just kept driving. Within a few miles I saw a Philly cop who had someone pulled over, and stopped to let him know what had happened. He said to call 911 and file a police report when I reached my destination. I asked him to radio in an alert so that the patrol who was currently working the area might be aware there were smash and grab burglaries occurring at the event grounds. I then made a list of all the important things that were in my briefcase before getting back on the road.
After dinner I went upstairs to lay out my clothes for the event, and realized that I hadn't brought my Tri bag in the house. I had a sinking feeling, but went to see if I had left it in the car. At that point I realized that they had stolen my entire Tri bag which had my bike helmet, shoes, jersey's, rain jacket, gloves, basically everything I needed to do the race. The bag also contained my Yoli Give T-Shirts that I had ordered for our team. Hopefully, the thieves had earned themselves some bad Karma by messing with someone who was trying to give acknowledgement to a company for partnering with such a great charity. Fortunately Cathy had brought all of her biking stuff because she was doing the olympic event the next day, and we wear the same size shoes. Luckily I had also packed an extra biking outfit.
After a fitful nights rest, I woke up before my 5am alarm and got ready for the event. While getting ready, I also realized my sports bras were in my Tri bag, so I had to borrow one from Diane (or wear my Victoria's Secret push up bra under my jersey with the questionable zipper that had broken that morning). We learned the swim was cancelled due to the heavy rain, so Cathy would have to do a 1.5 mile run instead of the swim. At this point, I thought to myself: maybe I was not meant to do this event, nothing has gone right this weekend, maybe I should just give up and go back to bed. Sometimes you have to wonder if every obstacle that appears in your path is just a challenge or if it is a warning. But my feisty nature would not let me cave and we departed for the race, me wearing Diane's sports bra, Cathy's bike helmet, shoes and gloves, and my Jersey with the broken zipper.
Even though the radar showed rain encompassing the area, the roads were dry for my ride. As soon as I took off on the bike leg of the Tri, I saw a girl holding a sign that said "Ride Like You Stole Something". This gave me a surge of anger adrenalin as I remembered that someone out there had all my stuff. Despite being exhausted after getting only 5 hours of sleep, I turned in a respectable average of 16.11 mph. I was happy to have completed the event safely despite all of the set backs. Enjoying a weekend with new friends and family helped to take the edge off of the disappointing and stressful way Friday had started. And the best part was that I did get to do an event with my sister!
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