End of the 2010 Season and some other good news!
Posted by Admin on October 13, 2010 in Training
What a weekend. I completed my 79th triathlon, saw the movie Social Network, and oh yeah, got engaged! First, the race:
After proposing Saturday night, there was no time to celebrate since I had to get up super early to race Sunday. Being in bed by 11 p.m. or so didn’t achieve the desired result as I was still pretty amped up. But, as always, I passed out somewhat quickly and woke up easily at 4:30 a.m. I had to figure out how to squeeze my tri bike into my father’s car which I have been borrowing while mine is being serviced, but a few creative steps later, I began the 70 mile drive to Cedar Beach on Long Island.
Once at the race site, I wondered why so many people were there. I mean, it was 45 degrees and a windy! I waited until the last possible moment before shedding my clothes and while I was initially on the fence about using a wetsuit, I decided to go with it, if nothing else but to keep warm BEFORE the swim. The water, like last week, was warmer than the air, so getting in was easy. My goggles once again didn’t cooperate and by the time I had a good seal, I was at the back end of my swim wave. I managed to put in a decent effort and passed a lot of the slower guys, but it was clear that I wasn’t breaking any records.
Getting from the water to transition was difficult because the beach isn’t covered in soft sand but rather rocks and rough, gravelly sand instead. I tried to be tough about it, but it killed my feet! Transition itself hadn’t really been swept for little pebbles, and they hurt too. T1 took me forever as I spent the time, like last week, to put on my arm warmers. I couldn’t even sprint with my bike out of transition because of the terrible ground conditions. But, once I mounted the bike and eventually got my feet into my shoes, I put the pedal down, so to speak. I hadn’t done any recon on the course, but had heard from others before the race that it was fairly hilly. I wasn’t sure if my past successes this year in hills would translate this far into the season, but at the 1.5 mile mark, I found myself climbing next to a guy who appeared to be pretty strong and doing well. Of course, it’s always about relative measure, but he LOOKED like he was a good biker and that was good enough for me. Once we crested the hill, he took off on me but I tried to remain steady and eventually, I got him on a downhill as he coasted and I pedaled hard. I never saw him again and as I think about it, no one passed me for good on the bike!
It was a two loop bike course, so I knew what to expect on the second loop and I believe that I had a negative split. Given how easily I’ve been able to run off the bike this year, I decided not to back off at all towards the end of the bike leg. Once I got to the dismount line and began to run to my transition area, I found that my feet and toes were totally frozen. You’d think therefore that the numbness would make the sensation of stepping on pebbles less painful… but they still hurt! It was literally like running on peg legs.
Once on the run, I just tried to find a pace I could handle that wasn’t slow but also wasn’t lung-bursting. As I got to the turn-around point of the first loop, I was pleasantly surprised with what my watch reflected; turns out that I was running pretty well despite the cold feet. I ran a little harder on the way back to negative split that loop. Then, with that effort level carrying over, I got into the second loop with aggression. I passed a lot of people and by the time I go to the last turn-around, I was at full steam heading towards the finish. Eventually, I did the 5k at a 7:34 pace which, for me, is very good given the late season and recent soccer injury to my right knee. I was very happy!
The real happiness though came from what happened the night before. Actually, the story begins on Friday night while out seeing the movie Social Network. We saw the film with another couple and at their apartment afterwards, I received several texts about Roya’s dogs barking for hours in my apartment. My neighbor offered to check up on them, but after realizing that she no longer had my key, we rushed back to resolve things on our own. That’s not the important part of the story, but it’s relevant later.
I bought the engagement ring for Roya a few weeks ago, but because the stone I chose was not properly sized for the ring setting they had, they had to re-create the ring and that process would take two weeks. To save on tax implications, we agreed to have it shipped to my parents’ house in NJ on October 7th. That morning, I called the jeweler and was told that it wouldn’t be ready, but that I could pick it up on Saturday afternoon.
Up til this point, I hadn’t fully resolved how or when I’d ask. I had ideas mind you, but ultimately, nothing really grabbed me and the last thing I wanted was to be cliche or for Roya to expect it. But, upon getting the ring Saturday at 4 p.m., I found myself a little freaked out that I now had it. I knew almost immediately that I’d have to ask that night. I did, a mere four hours later!
That night, we had plans to go to my parents’ house to have dinner with them and some old family friends visiting from out of town. After dinner and while Mom cleaned up before dessert, I pretended to get a phone call from my neighbor. With finely-tuned acting skills, I had a full fake conversation and made Roya notice how stern my expression was, so much so that she asked what was wrong. I whispered “it’s the dogs!” and motioned for her to follow me to the deck outside so as to avoid being rude. I then said that we should just go down to the driveway (a level down) so that we could address this with privacy. I then ended my pretend phone call and as we began to discuss what to do about the dogs, I noticed that because she rushed out of the house so quickly, she wasn’t wearing shoes, just socks. I got down on one knee, seemingly to see if her feet were cold when I blurted out that there was no dog issue. I reached into my rear pocket to get the ring box, pulled it out and opened it, and asserted, “I want to marry you.” To be clear, I didn’t ask; I was like a caveman: “Me… marry you. Grunt.” She was stunned. She didn’t know what to say, where to look, what to do; it was surreal. I put the ring on and after a moment, she said, “I’m going to throw up. I’m going to pee. No, I’m going to throw up.” Shortly later, she said, “Oh, and yes.” Thing is, she was saying yes to my assertion, not question! We had to play this all back over the few days to come up with what actually happened because I hadn’t remembered asking, and which is why I find it so funny. I was obviously that nervous which is out of character for me since I take pride in being even keeled. It’s endearing in retrospect, but I kinda regret not asking her in the right way. Oh well.
Naturally, the folks and friends were thrilled and though we wanted to celebrate, I had to get up so early Sunday morning that it was cut short. On the way back home, we called a few close friends and family and updated our Facebook profiles thinking it would be innocent enough to do so. My God, the volume of comments and notes I got from that… staggering! Amazing how it works like an electronic bulletin board. Only bad part of doing so was that my sister found out about the engagement via Facebook before hearing the news from me directly, a terrible betrayal on my part. I feel awful for my impatience, but I was fueled by emotion. It doesn’t matter how/why I made the mistake. Bottom line is that I have a lot of making up to do with her.
Anyway, I’d be lying if I said that this has been a whirlwind romance, or that the speed of things has changed drastically since Saturday. Truth is, we’re both older and we both know that what we share has tremendous staying power. We love calling each other “fiance/fiancee” but humor aside, we’re on really even ground. I have to admit though that I love that seeing Roya aglow, and I love that this has made her giddy with excitement. I didn’t know a little ol’ ring could have such an effect, but it’s a beautiful thing to see. What lies ahead is planning and some changes to our lifestyle (like her moving in to my place), but our relationship remains solid and consistent.
The plan is for a July 3rd wedding, a very small one. Three weeks later, I’ll be competing at Ironman Germany and though Roya won’t be there for that (she’s a bridesmaid at a wedding in Orange County, CA the night before), she’ll meet me in Paris or Barcelona or somewhere in between the next day and we’ll start our two week honeymoon.
I’ll likely create a wedding page on this site with more details, so stay tuned.
1 Comment on End of the 2010 Season and some other good news!
By Roya Salahian on November 10, 2010 at 7:59 am
I love you…
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