Sisi's Rookie Year

My sister and I are seven years apart. Given my amazing youthful looks you might never know that I'm the older one, so I'll go ahead and clue you into that.  Growing up, my sister used to follow me around and irritate me to no end.  Oh, how the tables have turned.  My mom always used to say, she just wants to be like you.  Have mercy on her naive soul.

Left to Right: Older-Younger

 It's possible I've used this 'she just wants to be like you' leverage when I want to rope her into something.  Rewind to a little over a year ago, I started throwing out commentary about IMAZ.  My sister had grown up swimming like me, had been doing endurance bike racing for two years, and had sprinkled in a few half marathons.  Side note: Who rides her bike for 200 miles and calls it fun?!  I thought she might be a hard sell based on the marathon, but there wasn't much convincing needed; we signed up.

The next year was fun and exciting having my little sister racing with me.  She's a coach's dream. She puts her head down and gets the work done.  Being that we don't live in the same state, I don't see her as often as I would like.  We got to race together a couple times throughout the year.  First, we went to Portland for the Rock 'n' Roll Half.  Portland was not an easy course, but she PR'd by seven minutes.

Next up, we got to race a triathlon together at San Diego International.  It was her first international distance race and on a big stage to boot; she placed 10th in AG.  So proud!

We really wanted matching kits; this was the best we could do. 

In August, I headed over to SoCal and we raced the Santa Barbara Triathlon.  This was her first 'longer' triathlon and she did awesome.  We were both lucky enough to place 3rd in our respective AG's.

Twins?! I kid.

She came out to AZ to do the Women's Half Marathon a couple weeks before IMAZ.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to race with her because my foot was already in the boot.  She'd been nursing a bit of a knee injury, due to a bike fit, so we weren't sure how it would play out.  The PR Queen came through again and knocked it out of the park.

The Athlete

                                                                 

The Gimp Sherpa.  We love us some Zoot.

The big dance.  After this amazing year, words cannot express the disappointment I felt to not be racing with my sister at IMAZ.  However, this post is about her and not my pathetic injury me.  I couldn't have been more proud! We started the race together and then I met her at the finish line and put her medal on myself; it was very bittersweet.

Thank you TYR and Nineteen for speedy swims.  We LOVE our wetsuits.

The family likes cheering for her more than me because she smiles and waves at them.  She's much more relaxed than I am.  I should take some tips from her.

Giant should be knocking at this girl's door.  She's even been a model in their catalog and on their website.

Love it!

She nearly broke my heart here; telling me she only wanted to finish and make me proud. 

My sister is an Ironman!

She accomplished so much this year and I'm so proud of her.  With one year under her belt, she's got a bright triathlon future.  She doesn't even have a triathlon bike yet; I'm not sure I want her to get one.  I can already hear the footsteps looming behind me.