When most of us are sound asleep at 6am on a Saturday morning, a growing number of your fellow San Antonio residents are well on their way to meet their training group in various locations around town. Whether they have chosen to run, walk or cycle, our city is signing up in record numbers to compete in the Rock and Roll Marathon and Half-Marathon in November. It’s training season!
If you happen to notice a large number of people wearing purple shirts then you have more than likely spotted a member of Team in Training. TNT is one of the largest endurance sports training programs. They have trained over half a million people to compete in various events and raised over $1.2 billion to fund cancer research.
One of my friends and mother of twins, Heather Johnson, first introduced me to this training program while she was a member of the San Antonio Area Mother of Multiples. She was so passionate about the program that she convinced over 9 women in our SAAMOM group to train and finish their first full marathon in 2008. The next year 3 more mothers of twins and triplets crossed the finish line. A total of 12 women that were in the middle of raising their young multiple sets of children took the time out of their busy lives to train for a marathon and raise money for TNT. A large portion of the funds raised for the TNT organization are donated to further cancer research. This non-profit supports the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
It was very inspiring for our SAMMOM group to watch these women achieve not only their fitness goals, but complete their first marathon. It in turn gave them a confidence in themselves that they never knew was missing. They also formed lifetime friendships with one another while participating in the 4-5 month training program. Most of these moms have continued to compete in half and full marathons and proudly train and wear their TNT training shirts.
In talking to one of these women, Michele Clements-Thompson at an SAAMOM meeting a few months ago, I found out that she was indeed still training with TNT but decided to raise the bar a little bit this year. She informed me that she was training for the Ironman Triathlon in November.
I couldn’t comprehend all the dedication and training it would take to finish a triathlon. It requires you to complete 2.4 miles of swimming, 26.2 miles of running and 112 miles of cycling all in the time span of 17 hours.
As we were catching up with one another over dinner at our monthly SAAMOM meeting, I realized that I needed to share Michele’s story as well as her entire triathlon team with our Livin’ Sassy readers.
We recently met at Hardberger Park the morning after they had just competed in a 100 mile cycle race. You would never know that these ladies drove in after midnight from their competition in Wichita Falls. After hearing about how each other did in their grueling race, they quickly spruced up their lipstick and posed for pictures. They might be right in the middle of 10 months of endurance training, but they made sure that their lipstick was just perfect. And so it should be!
I had asked them to take pictures in their favorite workout clothes. They were all in agreement that they loved the attire at Lululemon. The material of their workout gear is so light and soft. It is important to be comfortable in what you are wearing while you are in the midst of a competition. If you are the least bit uncomfortable, it will effect your performance. Their items are a little pricey but they are worth the splurge. I think we can all be in agreement that if they are competing in a triathlon, they deserve the best gear!
Let me introduce you to Team in Training San Antonio’s IRONTEAM Women for 2012:
Our first team member is Michele.
She is a psychologist, mother of 9 year old twins and a triathlete.
Next we have Margie. 
Meet Anid.
And finally we have Coach Carrie. 
Laura, Wonderful post! Thanks so much for sharing these inspiring women with us. Cheers, Denise
Thank you Denise. They are so amazing. I felt very honored to tell a little of their stories.
This level of commitment and dedication to training is more than inspiring. Phenomenal !!!
Way to go gals !!! Proud Mother of Michele.