I completed a triathlon with Jennifer Lopez!
Just got back from Malibu. Sorry for not blogging over the weekend, but with two races, two parties, and a huge, enormously important, world-famous celebrity to worry about (I got off the plane to hear that Jennifer had injured her ankle and dropped out of judging Project Runway...hello, anxiety!), I have been very, very busy.
Here is how it all went down, including details on the dramatic day that I'll never forget.
Friday, I flew in and drove to the gorgeous hill town of Agoura and picked up my bike from the nice folks at Agoura Cycles, who had put it together for me. Then I drove on to the Pacific, where the Malibu Nautica Triathlon was being held--it's a two-day event that would culminate in the celebrity-packed race on Sunday.
When I arrived at my hotel, the Malibu Beach Inn, the first thing I saw from my gorgeous balcony view were two black dolphins playing in the Pacific, about 100 yards past the surf line. This was a very good sign, an omen of good things to come. Happy swimmers, I thought to myself. Later I would remember this and think: Swimming is just like playing. The more you relax in the water and move in graceful, dolphinlike motion, the easier and faster you go. I knew how Jennifer felt about the ocean: It's big and scary. But I've spent plenty of time in the open water, and it's become one of my favorite parts of the race, though I'm still slow. More like a dog paddling than a dolphin. But I can keep trying.
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Later that night, we were hosted by Michael Epstein, the race organizer, and got to meet the sponsors from Toyota, Paul Mitchell and the chief of the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the beneficiary of the event. Everybody asked me about Jennifer's ankle, and all I could tell them was what I knew from her team: "She is on a plane heading here now. She will be there. She is committed!"
Turns out she'd also been shaking trees to find fund-raising dollars and putting in plenty of her own, too. She managed to come up with $127,000 for CHLA, which is impressive, given the fact that she is only one person. All in all, the race raised more than $950,000 for the children's hospital. Pretty good for a bunch of part-time athletes who have day jobs!
Over the course of the night, I had two glasses of wine. What was I thinking? I had told myself NO ALCOHOL ALL WEEKEND. But between one glass at the cocktail party and another at dinner, all my resolve went out the window. I was racing the Olympic distance on Saturday and personally had high hopes for doing my own fastest time. I should not have been drinking, and certainly not at 8 P.M., which on NY time was well past my bedtime.
SATURDAY, I woke at 3:30 A.M. and realized that was it, I could NOT go back to sleep. I actually got up and wrote a little in the computer diary I keep. It was my grandfather's birthday and so I thought about all the things he taught me and the expectations he held out for his grandkids. No warm fuzzies there, the man had standards! Today I hoped to live up to them, and my own.
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My predawn jitters gave way to an adrenaline rush and I had the race of my life. Fast out of the water in 32 minutes, faster than ever on my bike at 112 minutes and a personal record of 45 minutes in the 6.2-mile run. I got fourth in my age group! So that was one big concern down. My anxiety started lifting. Now I just had to think about Jennifer and the race she would face the next day. Her big concern was the swim, specifically getting in and out of the big, rolling waves, and in fact the surfers dotting the shoreline up and down the coast were enjoying some nice swells. I thought the water was relatively calm for my race, but then again, every morning and every wind pattern brings a different reality. There is nothing more unpredictable than the water.
Saturday night, we held a drinks gathering on the patio of my hotel, and everyone I knew came: our West Coast editor, Tessa Benson, who brought Kelly Meyer, wife of studio head Ron (and mother-in-law of Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire), whose cell phone has a big HOPE sticker on the back and an image of Barack Obama. I felt closer to the man just standing within 2 feet of that phone--like it might ring and be Michele or someone any second. Along with Meyer, the mayor of Malibu came with her daughters. The next day she would medal, actually winning the celebrity division. Also at the party: Marlien Rentmeester, who contributes to SELF from L.A. as our fitness, beauty and lifestyle well-being expert. Marlien is a wonderfully calming presence--a Zen mother to me, though she's about 15 years younger--and just hearing her voice made me less nervous about the upcoming events.
We also had several of our advertising partners, including Greg Lucia from Saatchi, who works on the Toyota account as a marketing genius (and who also helped put the triathlon together); Nanette Bercu, the creative person from Paul Mitchell who is also a triathlete and who got a medal on Sunday and swam a relay on Saturday. Nanette is always so positive and energetic, I love her upbeat spirit. Rebecca from MBT was there showing off the latest model of these wonder shoes, and I had three people swear to her that I rarely take mine off. My new competitive training friend is Jennifer Weiderman from K Swiss. She and I love to push ourselves and compare notes on training (she has done far more longer races than I have, so she has much more experience). She brought the gorgeous Anna Kournikova, who talked excitedly about her next phase of her career. (A blisteringly fast runner, she was doing the running leg of a relay the next day.) Plus, we had stunningly beautiful actresses Alexandra Paul and Maxine Bahns, who was competing Sunday in a relay, and charming actor Teddy Sears, who ended up medaling also. And of course my new pal, elite athlete and model Jenny Fletcher, who is not only speedy (she won her age group Saturday and came in second overall!) but beautiful and will be featured in the upcoming November issue of SELF with her gorgeous husband, also a competitive triathlete. Basically this was one good-looking crowd!
All the people I'd met so far showed up: triathlete Ian Murray, who is Matthew McConaughey's coach (and hubby of Alexandra), and Keith from Xterra wetsuits and his gorgeous wife, Tracy, who was one of several pregnant women who didn't look pregnant at all! (Marlien being another.) The whole group was sewn together by my pal Jim Garfield of Active.com, who knows everyone in the world of sports and celebrity and especially where those worlds intersect. He announced Sunday's race and if ever Jeff Probst wants to move on, I elect Jim for the Survivor gig.
Everywhere I turned the photographer wanted to take pictures of me and these willowy, gorgeous women and I was always by far the shortest one in the frame, even in my 4-inch heels. Then we did a group shot with the SELF team out there for the event and I finally felt that I was in the right height lineup. Maybe I should only hire people shorter than I am. But no, I did a mental head count and figured out that I have lots of tall editors on staff. They just weren't at the party that night!
Jennifer and Matthew McConaughey meet up at the starting line.
I went to bed early-ish after a healthy meal but did another count of the wine consumed: two spritzers at the cocktail party, a glass of red at dinner. Why can't I de-stress without alcohol? I told myself it didn't matter since my big race was behind me. But I still had to get up at 4 A.M. to get to the start of the next race.
That night I listened to the crashing waves as I fell asleep and thought they sounded a little bigger than the night before. Not a good sign.
SUNDAY. Up at 4:30 A.M. and on the road to the race start with hubby James, who was doing the swim leg of the relay with one of the Disney teams. Of the 3,200 athletes there, 300 were from Disney. Even Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO, did the bike leg of a relay. The company has been devoted to the cause of well-being for its employees and giving to charitable causes like CHLA. Iger himself is in amazing shape and you can see that the corporate culture is set at the top. (Willow Bay, his wife, is a friend from way back, and the two of them are as fit and healthy as working people have a right to be!)
At the race, the weather was slightly wet and it was dark as I walked about a mile from the parking lot to the transition area. The lights illuminated the place where you set up your bike and shoes and every now and then there'd be flashbulbs and you knew another celebrity had arrived. Matthew McConaughey got the biggest oohs and aaahs and it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps Jennifer was caught up in the throng of paparazzi. It was such a zoo. I was right. I looked down the beach and saw a the group of photographers and her cowered in the middle, walking with Gunnar Peterson, her trainer, and a few security people. I went bounding over and when she saw me she gave me a huge hug. It was clear she was nervous and didn't want to talk. I stood with her at the start with her husband, Marc Anthony, Gunnar, her PR guru Nanci Ryder and three big security guys. She was planning to swim alongside a veteran lifeguard who would make sure that she felt calm in the water. It was a smart move. The waves were building and every now and then a huge roller would crash on the beach. I hoped she wasn't watching. In an "only in your dreams moment" Matthew came over and they hugged, he shook Marc's hand and the two slapped each other on the shoulder. Everyone was nervous. I told Jennifer just to breathe. She had no makeup on and looked beautiful: glowing and gorgeous and somewhat vulnerable, too. I could tell she was nervous but ready. "I'm just going to have fun!" she said. Then the gun went off and all the celebrities and relays got into the water. It was a melee. I watched with Marc (my group was going into the water later) and he was anxious to keep his eye on her as she got through the first, rather large, foamy, white crashing wave, then the next. By the third one (again, modest but strong) she was committed. She started swimming and we kept our eye on her little bobbing cap as long as we could; within seconds she was one of hundreds of dots in the water, all heading for the first big orange buoy. No turning back. Marc had been so supportive, giving her kisses and hugs before the race. Now I could tell he was nervous. Nothing he could do but go over to the swim-out area and wait and hope and watch.
I wasn't there when she emerged from the water but I heard he was beaming at her, and my husband, who was in Jennifer's group, said, "She did really well, all smiles, and everyone was rooting for her." Reassuring news for me, and after the race she told me the swim was hard but it went quicker than she thought. The bike was "easy and not that long" and the run was just a normal 4-mile run.
I caught up with Jennifer again at the stage, and wouldn't you know it? She won fifth in in her celebrity women division! After the podium moment where she beamed with pride and stood alongside the other winners, she presented the hospital with the incredible donation of $127,000. She was exhilarated and exhausted and ready to get back to her babies and her life and even flew to NY later that day to throw a 40th birthday party for Marc. It was quite a weekend, and to me, the most inspiring thing about it was not only her commitment to the training, but her ability to get over the fear of the water, and her trepidation at the rolling waves.
Lucy and Jennifer's husband, Marc Anthony, try to track Jennifer amid hundreds of silver, bobbing caps.
I'm no dolphin myself, and the first thing I noticed is that the Pacific is so different from the Atlantic. Deeper and darker blue. When I first got in the water this freaked me out--it's more like a scuba view than a swimming one. The water literally seems to drop off and be forever deep. Maybe it's the reason I had deeper thoughts during this race. Deeper water. More space to ponder as you pull your arms through the stroke. It's beautiful and vast.
It's easy to do things you love and are good at. True inspiration comes from getting outside your comfort zone, and setting a goal and meeting it. As I watched the other swimmers after Jennifer, the surf kicked up and a few of the breaks looked more like Hawaii 5-0 than a swim race. I thanked God or Mother Nature or whoever sets the waves that this hadn't happened during the moments Jennifer had to get through the break. But even if she'd had to get through a 20-footer, she would have done it. Because what I learned from this weekend is you can do anything you set your mind to do. My mom always said it, but now I believe it. Jennifer, you inspire me. I hope you inspire other women to go out there and make extraordinary things happen in their own lives. Whether it's a body goal or a sports event or a fund-raising, world-changing effort. Whatever you want to accomplish, you have to be willing to set your sights on the goal and go for it. The point is, the only failure is not trying. So just try. Or should I say tri?
Read Jennifer's triathlon training blog and see more pictures.
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