TRIATHLON GRANDMA - QUICK LINKS
-- First blog entry - 2012
-- First 5K - 2012
-- First Inside Triathlon - 2013
-- First Outdoor Triathlon - 2013
-- World Tri Championship (and Team USA) Qualification - 2015
-- Face of God - 2015
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Video! Quarter Million Plus Views! Crazy!!!
As we were driving home from the USA National Championship in Omaha, I checked emails on my phone and saw one from the reporter who interviewed me prior to the race (see blog entry). The subject link simply said "Wow!"
He said:
"National outlets are starting to pickup on your story ... here's a video they made: https://www.facebook.com/WatchVuz/videos/1082958225123025/."
When I opened the link, I was blown away. An online TV station called VUZ took took the KETV story and made a 39-second video out of it - with music in the background, and my words printed as I talked. They posted it on Facebook. Wild! TOTALLY dumbfounded.
Several people posted comments and I was thrilled that some said they were inspired to start their own journey. That just made my day. Happy, happy!
Then, I noted that there had been 128,000 views! WHAT?!!! Could that be right?
I started hitting refresh every 5 minutes or so, and each time I did there were 100's of additional views. As my husband and I drove along I-80, we kept saying to each other, "This is crazy!" as we watched the number of views climb. When we went to bed, there were 183,000 views.
Yesterday, the number of views continued to grow to our utter amazement and passed 250,000 - more than a quarter of a million views. Unreal.
As of this moment, there are 287,210 views and 608 shares. Crazy!
I have always hoped that my journey would help at least one person begin a journey of their own. Hopefully, at least one of those 250,000 people will start a journey. That would be SO cool!
KETV - TV Interview!!!
Last weekend, I was on my way to the open-water swim practice at the USA Triathlon National Championship in Omaha when my cell phone rang. The gentleman identified himself as a reporter for a local TV station (KETV), said he would like to interview me, and asked if I were in Omaha. When I said yes, he was so excited. :-)
With my swim workout and planned rest, I didn't think I should add anything to my schedule, but he said he'd come to me. As it ended up, he was already at the lake where I was headed so it all worked out well.
Not knowing that I was going to be filmed when I left the hotel, I had no make-up, my hair was back in a pony tail, and I was wearing skin-tight running capris. Oh well . . .
I've never been interviewed on film. It was surreal. As I approached Davonte, I noticed another gentleman operating a BIG camera. As soon as he saw me, he started filming. Crazy. The reporter was Davonte Mckennith. Super nice, genuine guy with a smile that could light up New York City. He put me immediately at ease.
After a few hellos, Davonte started asking me questions. All the time I talked, the camera was about 8 inches from my face. Crazy. At one point as I was talking, I could see the camera panning over my entire body - toes to head. What a hoot! I could also see people slowing as they walked to see who was being interviewed. I felt like an Olympian. Ha!
It's hard to put a four-year journey that has physical, mental and spiritual components into a five minute interview. Davonte did a nice job with his questions to help me stay focused. As we were driving to the lake, I sent him a "before" photo of me with my phone. He asked me what I saw when I looked at that picture. That was an interesting question. I think an incorrect perception of obese people is that they are unhappy about something, so they eat. When I look at my "before" picture, I do not see an unhappy person. I just see someone who didn't have proper boundaries with food. I also see a person who couldn't do a lot of things - like walk, fit in restaurant booths, tie my shoes, etc - and that's what I talked about.
After the interview concluded, Davonte and the camera guy (also extremely nice) chatted with my husband and me for a bit. I was in kind of a silly mood and for some reason, I flexed my muscles. Immediately, Davonte said, "Do that again!" and they filmed me flexing! I never, ever thought I'd be flexing my muscles on TV at age 62! What a hoot!
At the end, they wanted to get some film of me swimming. In recent years, I wouldn't let anyone get near me in a bathing suit with any kind of camera. I was in my tri suit, but still - that's a lot like a bathing suit. I quickly conjured up the words I've used throughout this journey, "Pride, go away!" and took off the clothes that were over my try suit.
The next challenge was jumping off the dock into the lake in a manner that looked somewhat graceful. LOL. I usually just plop in - but I was afraid that would make a huge splash. In my silly mood, what I really wanted to do was a cannonball! I ended up jumping away from the dock and forgot to put on my goggles. I tried to swim with good form. Ha! With the camera rolling, I think I did the first 100 meters of my swim workout WAY too fast!
Later, Brian and I watched the interview in our hotel room. Crazy to see myself on TV!
To be continued . . .
USA Triathlon - National Championship - 10th!
Omaha, Nebraska
COMING SOON :-)
