Be Brave Enough to Unite

by Trish, Ryan, Hannah, & Carrie

Team AWE kicked off its first official event at the inaugural Denver Triathlon last Sunday, July 24th.

Four women. Three sports. One and a half teams. One purpose.

We competed in the relay event, in which each member took on portions of swimming, cycling, and running. However, our teamwork began long before the actual race. After weeks of not planning, entering the race ended up as a last minute endeavor and was finalized late into the night before the triathlon.
"Carrie, my dog ate my handlebar tape. Do you have any??"
"Do you have any sunscreen, Hannah?"
"Ryan, do you know that we can't park at the lake in the morning and have to take a shuttle?"
"Is the shuttle accessible, Trish?"

Ironically, after all of the lack of planning we ended up at the same spot just before dawn. In the parking lot of Invesco Field, under the Colfax bridge,getting geared up and ready to go--a perfect spot to meet a team ready to rally for the competition to come. Most of our concerns seemed to resolve themselves as we sat in the parking lot.  With one able bodied guy from the race staff and Carrie running through the median between the cars, we came up with a game plan for the day.
One of the more difficult aspects to this particular triathlon was that it had 2 transition areas at 2 different locations.  In order to make it work for us; Trish and Ryan convinced the race officials to let Ryan park at the lake, so they loaded Hannah's bike & Ryan's wheelchair into the car and headed to the swim start and transition 1 at Sloan's Lake. Carrie hoped on the shuttle with her pilot for the day and also went to the lake. While waiting Trish took a nap in her car after being exhausted from a tough week of training in Oklahoma City and a delayed a flight the night before. She awoke to a text from Ryan saying she was out of the water and couldn't find Hannah on her bike. Finally Hannah found Ryan in the transition area and was on her way. During this whole process Carrie had completed a 13 minute swim and was well into her bike ride. Ryan loaded back up into the car and met up with Trish in transition 2  preparing  for her run. Trish crushed the run in a short time of  just over 16 minutes!  Job well done ladies!!

For something that started with such uncertainty, we came together and united at the finish line.  We took all of our individual strengths and made them work for one common effort.