The Beaver Freezer

As if the challenge of climbing Mt. St. Helens wasn't enough, this past weekend I decided to do something that made me feel equal parts dread and excitement: my first triathlon. About 2 months ago I signed up for the Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon in Corvallis, OR and have been training ever since. Swim, bike, then run. Seems simple enough, right? Except that while I have always loved the idea of doing a triathlon, I have been terrified of the swim. Sure, I have gone SCUBA diving at over 100' deep, but when I have to swim longer distances without an air source, a fear comes over me. This fear makes me think that each breath I take is going to be my last. It's an unnecessary but horrible feeling that results in anxiety and takes my focus off of the task at hand. This obviously does not lend well to competitive swimming. For me, this race was not only about pushing myself to try something new, it was about overcoming a fear, one which I know is ridiculous, but one that I have not been able to shake all these years.

Since signing up for the Beaver Freezer, I have been swimming twice a week at the YMCA. I've been fortunate enough to meet some people at the pool who gave me tips, and I eavesdropped on the swimming lessons going on in the other lanes. For those of you wondering, yes, the swim lessons were for small children, but the lessons were still applicable. I was able to put all of this information to good use and about three weeks before race day, I realized my fear was gone and I could swim the distance needed without hesitation.

In addition to swimming, I have been biking and we are both doing Insanity workouts. I also gave up all fried food for Lent and quit drinking after St. Patrick's Day. Amanda happily joined in on the workouts, as well as foregoing the fried foods and adult beverages. This has been a time for us to improve our fitness and rid ourselves of fatty foods and empty calories (the occasional piece of Easter candy may or may not have been consumed from time to time). That being said, we have clearly been craving French fries and/or a beer quite frequently over the past month! 

With my swimming phobia gone, it was game time. If I could survive the 500 yard swim, I knew the 12 mile bike and 5k run wouldn't be a problem. Amanda and I drove south to Corvallis on Friday night so that we could be ready for my 8:00am start time. The triathlon takes place on Oregon State University's campus, hence the "Beaver" reference (the beaver is their mascot). Upon our arrival, we then understood the "Freezer" part of the title as it was cold, rainy, and just plain nasty weather.



The logo says it all

After registering, I got my race number marked on my arms and legs, which meant there was no turning back now. In the transition area, I set up my bike, shoes, and clothes so I could get changed from my swim suit to biking gear, then biking gear to running clothes. Since it was raining, I had to place all my things into plastic bags in a feeble attempt to keep them dry. This killed me later in the race as I had to spend time digging through my bags to find what I needed.

In addition to the rain and pre-race jitters keeping me on edge, I threw a classic temper tantrum when I realized I had forgotten my watch and energy bars. The watch I could live without, but anyone who knows me should realize that when I'm active, I need to eat. The idea of running this race without a snack of some sort scared me worse than swimming does. Fortunately, our good friend and co-worker Larry, who also signed up for the race, found a stash of PowerBars right before the start and saved the day.

My goal for the swim was to finish in less than 10 minutes. This is an average time, but one I felt I could handle. With Amanda, Larry, and Larry's wife Pam cheering me on I finished second in my heat and was out of the pool in just under my stated goal. Without time to cherish my personal victory, I had to run, barefoot and soaking wet, outside in the cold rain to the transition area to get my bike.

Getting ready to ride

After an unnecessarily long amount of time getting prepared for the bike, I set off for the 12 mile ride through Corvallis. To my surprise, the route traversed rolling hills and open fields that sat just outside of the normally buzzing college town. The rain continued to steadily fall which resulted in slick roads and mud covered riders. Even though the bike is my favorite event, I was happy to be back on campus and finished with the soggy ride.

The last leg was the run, which consisted of 3 laps around the center of campus. While I didn't feel winded, I just couldn't get my legs to cooperate for the run. I'm sure that watching me run looked just as bad, if not worse than what I felt. So while I knew I wouldn't be fast, I just had to keep plugging away in order to finish in under 90 minutes, which was my ultimate goal. Amanda was amazing. While she was there to cheer me on throughout the whole race, she was especially helpful during the run by giving me updates on my time and encouragement when I needed it. As I came around the final turn and headed for the finish line, I couldn't believe what I had just done. I conquered my swimming fear and finished the race in 1:24:42.

I survived!

While this time is merely average by most standards, I couldn't have been happier with it. I met my goal, and now have a time to beat for the next one (it's fair to assume there will be a next one). Also, I know this was a sprint triathlon, which is the shortest distance triathlon, but it was still a challenge that forced me to be more disciplined with training than I have been in the past. I may not ever be an Ironman Triathlete like someone I know (Dan Mayer is a freak of nature!), but just completing a triathlon gave me a huge sense of accomplishment and hopefully I can use this race as a stepping stone towards other endeavors in the future.

As a side note, an Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. Absurd.

Larry, a former Air Force veteran and current member of the Army Reserves, also met his goal of completing his first ever triathlon. At age 52, he was an inspiration to me in the way that he pushed himself to be more active and in better shape than he has been in years. He had one of the top overall swim times and finished in the top 10 for people using mountain bikes.



Larry and I at the Finish Line Gun Show

As a reward for all of our hard work, Larry, Pam, Amanda, and I enjoyed a nice post-race lunch on the town. Lots of French fries and cold beer were ordered up at Block 15 Brewery in downtown Corvallis. We deserved it! After spending the afternoon walking around town, we headed back to the hotel to crash. The whole day felt like a blur, but it was an excellent blur. I just want to thank Amanda for supporting me during this event because without her help, I know I wouldn't have met my goals. Without her, I wouldn't even be in Oregon, or Washington, or wherever the heck we are right now!

Homestretch of the 2013 Beaver Freezer



Never Enough Time

I’m embarrassed to say that we’ve been living in Aberdeen for 5 months now and Mom and Pop Funk, who were in Aberdeen for just 4 days, visited our neighboring town before we did.  Ocean Shores is a beach town on the northwest side of Grays Harbor, 27 miles west of Aberdeen.  It is NOT a Jersey shore type of beach town with huge boardwalks, t-shirt shops, and hundreds of condos.  It's a peninsula bordered by the Pacific Ocean and Grays Harbor where people pace up and down the shoreline searching for Japanese treasures washed ashore, dig razor clams to feed their families, and surfers brave the cold water to ride a good wave.  Of course there are hotels along the beach and seafood restaurants offering tasty local catches, but this town is quaint and harder with weathered houses trying to withstand the never ending rain that pours over this part of the world. 

We finally made the short trek to Ocean Shores on a surprisingly beautiful Saturday afternoon.  We enjoyed a long walk on Damon Point followed by a visit to a local art gallery, and then to the Ocean Shores Clam Festival.  We arrived to the festival later in the day and missed out on voting for the best local clam chowder; however, we were not too late to do some of our own tasting.  Over the last 6 months Charlie has learned to not just tolerate, but enjoy the taste of clam chowder, which makes me smile.  I think the big turning point was using razor clams we caught to make homemade clam chowder – how could he not like something we put time and effort into making???  So anyway, after tasting a few varieties of chowder we decided our vote would have gone to Bennett’s Fish Shack, who was awarded #3 by voters earlier in the day.  Regardless, they were first in our hearts, especially because they offered a bread bowl filled with their delicious chowder concoction.  Mmm…clam chowder! 
 

Damon Point
4 miles of beach, water on 3 sides.

Nothing special, just a hand-carved giant razor clam. 

Ocean Shores had more to offer than we expected, but after a few slow paced weekends we were itching to do something a bit more adventurous.  We found that something in the active volcano that lies just 3 hours away – Mount St. Helens.  We decided if there was any mountain we should attempt to summit while in Washington it should be the infamous Mount St. Helens, who blew her top off in 1980.  The appealing thing about this strenuous hike is that it’s not considered a technical climb, thus allowing amateur adventure seeking folk like us a chance to say we’ve summited a well-known mountain.   The only issue is that it’s currently covered in snow; therefore this gave us another excuse to snow shoe. With only 3 weekends left in good ol’ western WA we needed the weather to cooperate.  Checking the forecast for Mount St. Helens religiously we were psyched when the conditions looked promising for Easter weekend.  A bit of snow fell during the week, but clear skies were forecast for Friday-Sunday with only “considerable” avalanche danger...



Better a "3" than a "5"

The Northwest Avalanche Center
warned of concern for unstable cornices.
You get the idea from the picture...
stay away from ledges and rims!

With the forecast promising good weather it was time to prepare - we did quite a bit of research, made sure we had adequate maps (on paper and on our handheld GPS), and began mentally preparing for an all day trip to the top of an active volcano.  In gathering appropriate gear we finally bought snowshoes, and were lucky to have great friends lend us ice axes and trekking poles – both crucial pieces of equipment.  Having all the right stuff made us look good, but we still had a lot of work to put in!

The winter hiking route leaves from Marble Mountain Sno-Park on the south side of Mount St. Helens.  You gain around 5,500 feet in elevation and cover 12 miles round trip.  The estimated time to complete a trip up to the summit and back is 7-12 hours (depending on what website you are reading).

Luckily we weren’t trying to break any records because when all was said and done it took us 10 hours to hike from our car to the summit and back.  I must say this was a mental challenge of perseverance and team work.  Charlie and I have done a lot of activities together, but this was definitely the most challenging.  The first 3-4 miles were excellent – great weather, great scenery, and gradual inclines.  However, as we began to really climb the last 2-3 miles and still had about 4,000 feet to gain, only false summits were in view and my patience, determination, and energy began to wane.  Additionally, the strong sun and hunger started putting doubt in my mind.  Charlie, the fearless leader in our party of 2 kept us moving toward our goal.  His enthusiasm and determination to complete any kind of challenge can be good and bad.  He will push himself to the max, but for an endurance event like this we had a good balance of his excitement paired with my pace of slow-and-steady. 

Trudging up the never ending, steep inclines was well worth the effort when we finally made it to the summit (aka crater rim) and had a 100% clear view of the ever changing crater that resulted from Mount St. Helen's huge eruption just 33 years ago.  It was a little eerie to see steam rising from a cone in the crater as the volcano is actively rebuilding itself.  However, that eerie feeling doesn't last long when you take a second to look up and out with 360 degrees of outstanding views.  There are lakes and mountains as far as the eye can see with a few impressive, snow capped bumps that are like natural skyscrapers.  We could see Mount Rainier and Mount Adams in Washington, and Mount Hood in Oregon. 
 

Relieved to be at the summit.
In awe of the crater.

We made it up, but had to get back down. Luckily the trip down goes a bit quicker, especially when there is enough snow to glissade. The definition of glissading is as follows: A way of sliding down a steep slope of snow or ice with the support of an ice axe. Ice axe you say? We've got that! The ride down was incredibly fun despite a near catastrophe when we almost lost our handheld GPS. With that disaster averted we were incredibly relieved to make it back to our car where dry clothes awaited. I must say that it's a great feeling to earn every bit of food you put into your body, relying on it to get you through. With that said, we headed home making a pit stop at a local pizza place. It was a great end to a great day.
In an effort to share our experience we have put together a short documentary for your viewing pleasure. The following has been filmed, produced and edited by Charles J. O'Malley (special thanks to Amanda F. O'Malley)...ENJOY!