He did it! He did it!
Yes, Papa Dang completed his first triathlon. He had this intrinsic motivation, which is basically the desire to do something from his own desire to accomplish his goal. If you know Papa Dang, he trained, but never thought he would be able to do it because of his pinched nerve on his lower back. But, he challenged himself to achieve things he thought was nearly impossible. This was one of his goals in life. What he learned after this first triathlon is that – never say never –
Let me tell you, it required ½ mile ocean swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 3 miles run. He finished in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Sounds pretty impressive to me! He told me that he enjoyed it because of the camaraderie of being around highly motivated and passionate people. Most of the people were in their 40s, 50s and 60s and were extremely in shape! Hell, this is awesome! Um… there were teens as young as 13 years of age, too! Double awesome!
I went on the triathlon website several times during the week to look at the route and determine how I would manage to take our two boys and my pregnant body on a trek to the finish line to surprise Papa Dang. I had a plan, but was convinced by Papa Dang not to go. He knows me well enough to know that I would show up. Haha! He said, I would have had to park my car and walk half a mile uphill to the finish line, which was true. OK, so maybe I’ll struggle with the extra weight I’m carrying but I wanted to be there! Then the plan failed since we went to my sister’s housewarming party and lost track of time. We didn’t get home until 12:30 a.m. and it was way past our boy’s bedtime. My oh-so-sweet girlfriend, Anh, volunteer to take me and drop me off to meet Papa Dang. However, plan failed again. Our boys slept late and didn’t wake up until 9 a.m. – I wanted to wake them up, but couldn’t because they needed their precious sleep.
I stayed up with my husband who couldn’t even sleep until 3:15 a.m. He said there was so much adrenaline running through his body filled with excitement. He even pulled out his hair kit to give himself a nice haircut and tried on his wetsuit at 3 a.m.! What a sexy man! Yes, I tell him he’s sexy daily. Honestly, how he managed to get himself to physically, mentally and emotionally complete the triathlon the way he did was a CHAMP. You go, Papa Dang! We are so PROUD of you!
We love you! XOXO
- B. Spears, Batman, Robin, and Baby Batman
