The race itself was surprisingly fun, probably because I've been training solo for the past three months and this felt like a huge group training session. Not to mention the fact that the Berkshire hills basically kicked my butt all summer long, making the short hills of the actual race course feel easy-peasy. Since I wasn't in too much pain, I had plenty of time to reflect on the event and what it meant to me and possibly, to the other competitors.
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| Before the race... |
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| ...and after. Hurrah for Dad's idea to make t-shirts! |
This wasn't an ordinary triathlon. It was a women's-only race, part of a Title 9 series held each summer in various parts of Massachusetts. In past lives, I've been a spectator at many a race, both triathlons and running events alike. Always cheering for a guy. While I love to cheer others on, this was the first time I was on the other side of the equation, and it felt really great. Even when I got passed on the bike (I have a really clunky, heavy mountain bike that got clobbered on the downhills), it still felt really great, because all the women passing me were at least my age or in some cases, much older! (They marked our ages on our calves for some reason - I'm not sure why but it turned out to be an inspiring piece of info as the race progressed.)
The other cool thing was that most of the spectators were men and children! For me, that sure felt like a switch. Every time someone shouted, "Go Mommy, go!" I felt like it could be for me, and that was wonderful. Like all the mommies of the world were being cheered for in that moment.
I hadn't given the feminist angle much thought initially; it just seemed like a cool idea to race with women only for my first tri - but when we arrived at the event, Sophia shocked us by observing, "It's neat there are so many ladies here - usually it's only boys who do sports." HUH??? We are still scratching our heads at this comment. I mean, we don't have a television so she wouldn't have noticed the unequal coverage of women's vs. men's sporting events. And though her dad cycles fairly often, I'm the one who cross-trains six morning a week and sometimes plays team sports in the evenings. Where on earth did she get this idea that women don't compete in sports?
When I was growing up, Title IX was still a fairly new thing. A federal education amendment passed in 1972 to prevent sex discrimination in educational programs supported by federal dollars, in the area of athletics this law required that schools: (1) provide male and female students with equal opportunities to play sports, (2) give male and female athletes their fair shares of athletic scholarship dollars, and (3) provide equal benefits and services (such as facilities, coaching, and publicity) to male and female athletes overall. Almost 20 years after its passage, I was a student in high school. Though barely aware of Title IX, I clearly remember grumblings from both parents and school staff about how boys' programs had to be "cut back" in order to make facility time, coaching staff, uniforms, etc. available to girls' teams. Yikes. But for girls today, the playing field (pardon the pun) should appear fair, right?
For me, the biggest accomplishment of the day was afterward, when I asked Sophia if she'd like to do a race with me sometime, and she said yes. She said no when I asked her before the race. I am so lucky to have role models in my mom - super Master's-level swimmer, nationally ranked - and in my sister - super mom, triathlete and runner. Today I wore one of my mom's old swimsuits for the swim and pulled on one of my sister's racing outfits for the bike and run. I also borrowed Stephen's baseball cap for the run, reflecting that after all, he's one of the biggest feminists I know. And that counts for a lot in marriage, at least if you ask me.
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Now onto the food. When we arrived home this afternoon, all of a sudden it hit me that THE TIME IS NOW for eating our recently harvested veggies, so everyone got involved in picking herbs, topping and de-stringing beans, scrubbing potatoes, picking flowers and peeling cucumbers. This was the result:
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| Roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes; braised garlicky green beans; cucumber--mint-yogurt soup; tomato-basil salad. |
A hearty meal to finish off a very hearty day. Hurrah for women and girls competing in sports! Hurrah for summer vegetables! And hurrah for our amazing government that, if we wait long enough and fight hard enough, usually does the right thing by its citizens!
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| 14 lbs of fingerling potatoes |
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| English cukes |
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| Purple bush beans |
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| Dragon's teeth pole beans |
