Elizabeth Simi - Final PreRace Check in! - Athletes in Motion Podcast

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the athletes in motion podcast from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom regal and Kenny Bailey.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:29

Hey, Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:30

I'm fantastic. Kenny, are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:33

Did I catch you off guard?

Tom Regal: 0:34

Yeah, it almost

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:35

sounded fantastic too, I guess. Fantastic.

Tom Regal: 0:39

I guess fantastic time. I'm really fantastic.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:43

That's right. Hey, we want to welcome Elizabeth back on our series of trend. Following triathletes. Thank you triathletes, journey. We are all going to have a hard time to see this one. So

Elizabeth Simi: 0:58

I'm a little worried about

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:00

Elizabeth. Before we get started, for those that are following along, if you want to like, like and subscribe, we would absolutely love that. There's a button place around here to be floating. Appreciate it helps with our algorithms help us keep us going. And we would really appreciate it. So Elizabeth, welcome. We are mere days away from Ironman California. How you feeling?

Elizabeth Simi: 1:23

Good, really good, I guess. I guess.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:27

I was believing her

Tom Regal: 1:28

until she said, I guess. And then she said, I guess I'm like,

Elizabeth Simi: 1:32

okay, yes. No, I feel pretty good. I wouldn't have a cortisone shot yesterday so that maybe my knee hurts, which has to be off but other than that,

Tom Regal: 1:43

but hopefully that'll help though. Right? Okay. Right.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:45

Yeah, right. Hopefully. Right. Yeah.

Elizabeth Simi: 1:47

supposably, you know, by it was weird, because last time I had it, it felt great right away. And this time, it's like, Hey, I heard Thank you. And I'm like, really? Come on. This is not when we want.

Tom Regal: 2:01

one millimeter over. Yeah, right here, right there. Yeah.

Elizabeth Simi: 2:08

Well, it's funny because this doctor because He's the doctor, you know, he just like points out at a boom, the other guy took an EEG pen and marked and did all this nice stuff. And I'm like, Huh?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:20

Yeah, Mark a dartboard kind of thing. Which parts? Are you feeling good about? Which parts? Are you trying to keep an eye on? What is your your days away? So you got kind of I know, nutrition was a thing we were talking about before? You feel like you got everything else dialed in. Do you feel which which parts are are keeping you up? In which parts are like, Okay.

Elizabeth Simi: 2:43

What do you want to hear about? Oh, my nightmare?

Tom Regal: 2:46

Yeah, let's hear.

Elizabeth Simi: 2:49

Let's see, one night, I dreamed that I was lost at the entrance to the swim course, which wasn't the swim course I should be at because it didn't look anything like that swim course. And I only had my goggles and I didn't know where my cap was. It was very upset.

Tom Regal: 3:05

Classic like that. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:08

And then let's let's go on. Well, great.

Elizabeth Simi: 3:12

Last night my fell apart. So the things that I probably shouldn't be worried about those are

Tom Regal: 3:22

popping up in your dreams. Awesome. Yeah. Well,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:25

the good news is, I mean, the stuff that's that's within your control isn't popping up in your dreams is the stuff that's sort of out of your control. Right. But what if scenario, but so just to just to kind of it's sounds like the weather is going to be fairly good, right? I think

Elizabeth Simi: 3:42

it's supposed to be amazing. Every day, the weather changes a little bit. Of course, everybody's looking at temperatures, right. And I keep going and looking at the winds because I know can happen out there. Right now. The winds are talking five to nine miles an hour with gusts, you know, so, which that's not too bad. But then another lady this morning, a weather lady was talking about rain, and I'm like, There's no rain on anybody else's forecast. Are you talking about?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:14

Oh, you're gonna get great. You're gonna get great weather because I'm not racing it. So that's usually the way it goes. Thank you guarantee good weather. You're welcome. This sacrifice I make. So water temperature is supposed to be around mid 60s. Right?

Elizabeth Simi: 4:28

I think so. It's really beautiful. Actually, I swam it twice. Since I talked to you guys last night. And

Tom Regal: 4:35

yeah, it looked like you guys had a boat and coached him had had you guys out on a boat. I was I was following some of the Instagram stuff. So

Elizabeth Simi: 4:43

yeah, yes, we were on a yacht. As my son said, I know this is a rich person sport. And when I saw you on the yacht I knew no rich people. But the swim actually the water was fantastic. In a strange thing, they're letting a lot of water out of Shasta Dam, I guess. So when you hit the Sacramento, it gets really cold. So it's really Oh, yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't like that before we you know, so it was like, we hit that and we go, Oh, hello, but the water is moving very quickly. The last two times I swam, the first time was an hour and one minute this last time was, I think, an hour and seven and last year's race was an hour and 15. So that's amazing. Amazing. Everybody should get out of the water unless they don't know how to swim.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:40

Or are you kind of crazy, but you're crazy. It sounds like also, they're, they have new places for the bike. And it looks like they're putting carpet down this week. And the whole thing so exciting, which

Elizabeth Simi: 5:53

is interesting. Because I've been over there, you know, quite a bit checking things out and such. And it's almost like a rocky gravel parking lot. So I'm like, Okay, how are we going to be doing this? And I saw they were putting down carpets, but I don't I hoping they're doing something else too. Because I'm worried like, how am I going to have to throw my bike on my shoulder and get it out of there? Because I don't want to pop a tire before I

Tom Regal: 6:26

should have carpet down for you to run on. And yeah, you're wrong. You're likely usually down the center. Maybe not underneath the bikes on the racks. But

Elizabeth Simi: 6:35

yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know, the good thing is, it is so close to transition for the water, you know, coming out of the it's not like last year, you don't have to run that extra little

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:49

half a mile. Yeah. So let's get so they're learning and growing from that. Did you happen to see the women's Ironman World Championship? Course I did? Does that, does that give you kind of a jolt of like, wow, I mean, does that does that help sort of with the juices and kind of gets everything ready?

Elizabeth Simi: 7:08

I love watching the World Champions. It doesn't matter if it's the bid or the women but it's just it's, I mean, those are the people that I've been in awe of my whole life so well not my whole life because it hasn't been around my whole life. But you know, for Ironman has been around and it's you learn a lot just from watching because, you know, you're seeing not too many mistakes, but the right ways to do things. And but I mean, come on it when she came out of the water first. I was like, There's no way she's gonna stay in first. And she did the whole time. It was crazy. Crushed it.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:49

Right. And that's what that's what's so cool about it. Right? It's, it's, it's, it's so parallel to you. I mean, if you look at Lucy and you you guys are like twins, right? Yeah, we're exactly alike. But it's it's sort of parallel in stories right? For time. She She didn't quite get there four times. And this time she did right. And that's, that's what's cool about the sport and you have a first time person that you know, ended up getting fourth we were she was in second because of GI issues and other problems. So you see that, you know, superhuman still have human problems, right? So to me, it's always been a fun thing to watch.

Elizabeth Simi: 8:21

Right and watching her knowing that she had never ran a full marathon is very fascinating.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:32

Because I know when I run my first marathon, I want to do it on a world championship stage. That's purely logical. So you got to

Elizabeth Simi: 8:38

I was like, What do you mean you haven't ran past? What was it? 18.9 Miles Okay,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:47

so exciting. So nutrition wise, do you feel like you you got that beast under control? Or it's as good as it's gonna get?

Elizabeth Simi: 8:54

It's as good as it's gonna get I mean, I know what I want to take in I know you know, I have a plan. Hopefully it's a good plan. I'm quicker on my bike this year. So I feel well as long as we don't have you know straight up hurricanes. I feel like I will have time if I need to stop and you know shove a little bit of food in if I'm not able to do it on the bike. Which most stuff I will just you know be eating while I'm going but the little peanut butter jelly sandwich thing that you know I got to stop do that because it makes a mess. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:31

Is it the uncrustables yeah well, good so it sounds like we're ready to go. You look great. You bikes going well,

Tom Regal: 9:48

right. How's

Elizabeth Simi: 9:49

the bikes going? Well, it's it's good. It's getting tuned up tomorrow. So it will be better because right now the what is it called? The My forgot the name of it, a little thing that makes it shift back and forth is. Yeah, so I can't get down to I don't know, that's a lower gear, the stronger gears, you know. So you don't need those I know them

Tom Regal: 10:18

rushing the straightaway

Elizabeth Simi: 10:22

that's it's on Sunday I'm trying to think every every day. It's like what was I doing? Sunday I was out on the course again writing and it was, you know, it was a shorter ride than normal. But I was getting down into the drops. And just on Jefferson just staying down and just really being like, this is where you can make time. You got to do it right here. So it was like, I think my brain is working different this year than it did last year. So so, you know, I'm thinking about where can you pick up your time? Where are you going to lose time? I mean, Babel SLU actually did pretty good on Babel. So this other day, but it's still a mess. So Okay,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:05

how's your taper so you got its taper week this week? Right. So excited.

Tom Regal: 11:11

Usually, usually nobody's excited about a table weeks. The first part of it on you're excited

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:18

and they get to back happy like Alright, let's get going. So,

Elizabeth Simi: 11:21

yeah, well, yeah, it's hard because you're like, you're ready. Let's go. I've been I've been ready for probably two weeks. Let's go. Let's do this and get it done. Right. But hey, taper me today was 25 minutes on my bike and 15 minutes on my feet.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:36

Come on. Are you looking around like well, now what do I do? Like? My family?

Elizabeth Simi: 11:44

Like, okay, but my feet up? Is my knee to banana, you know?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:50

Well, good. So it sounds like paper is going well, the bikes going well, or whether knock on wood again, we'll continue to knock on wood that goes whether for yes. The next time we talk to you will be on the other side with a metal around your neck. So we are super excited. I think Tom and I can both say we've been it's been more than a pleasure to talk to you throughout this year to just watch. That's kind of how you're progressing and how the the highs and the lows and you know, and the way that you were approaching them has always been just a frame of mind of you know, okay, this is what the situation is, how do I how do I get past it? How do I get through it? So yeah, we're super excited for you.

Elizabeth Simi: 12:26

I'm pretty excited. I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:27

don't want to jinx anything. So I just I think above all, and Tom can agree, just try to look up and enjoy it. Right? Yeah. Take it in while you're doing it.

Elizabeth Simi: 12:37

Yeah. And I, you know, I've been thinking about the whole thing a lot. And I know, at this point, I have in my head so much more of the run part than I did last time, I'd never even thought about the finish line or anything. And I'm looking at my times and where I want to be and so I'm really, I am way focused this time. So, you know, hoping that will be I'm determined to get across that finish line. Yeah, well, you know it and I'm hoping that I don't start crying when I get off the bus.

Tom Regal: 13:17

You might it happens to us. I mean, I've done

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:20

you can cry. Just keep moving forward when you cry. Just keep moving forward. Right. You could cry, but you need to walk and cry. It's okay to cry, but can go

Tom Regal: 13:29

perfectly acceptable to cry through tea to I mean, just

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:35

I know I cried last year through.

Elizabeth Simi: 13:39

Yeah, I can imagine. I dropped

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:50

off the bike. Yeah, exactly.

Tom Regal: 13:54

So make sure you thank the volunteers, thank all the volunteers as you go through that that bit of gratitude will lift your spirits and get you through. Even if you're sobbing as you thank them don't either. That's perfectly fine. Yeah, we are super excited to follow you this year, through this whole journey ups and downs and everything. So we want to thank you so much for sharing, sharing the story. We're excited we'll be tracking you on on Sunday. This will probably pop up I think we're gonna have this pop up on Friday morning. If I'm recording this a couple days before that. I'm going to try to push this thing out and get it out there Friday morning. So it'll be out before the race. And then yes, we will follow up after the race. For sure. Because we want to hear we want to hear stories of how it went. So veteran different

Elizabeth Simi: 14:42

so yeah, yeah. I mean, and this has been great guys. I mean, I actually you know, I know I'll have the low of after the race is done and you have that whole letdown but I also have the letdown of not

Tom Regal: 14:59

first person You say that? Yeah, you're the

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:05

other way around. It's like we don't

Elizabeth Simi: 15:08

talk to you guys. If you want to, you know, talk to me every month that I'm good. I'll pick up other stories.

Tom Regal: 15:19

There you go. You go. Oh, good. All right. So cool. Okay, well, let's, yeah, best of luck on the race. Knock it out of the park. Yeah, this is, like said, it's, this is exciting. We're super excited for you. And we know you're gonna do well. When Coach Tim won't accept anything else, Coach Tim. So shout out to coach forget,

Elizabeth Simi: 15:45

told me, Tim told me, he was more excited about me finishing than I am. And I'm like, Oh, no pressure.

Tom Regal: 15:55

We're all super excited. But we know, we know you can do it. And we know, you know, you can do it. So I think the focus this year is definitely there. So that's, that's fantastic. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:07

yeah, just real quickly about that, though, because I know, for example, I sort of imploded on there on the swim this year, because I gave myself so much pressure to perform. We, we thank you for letting us do this journey. But at the end of the day, this is your journey. And whether you do well, or you come up short, or whatever else, it's yours, right, and Tim, or Tom or myself or anybody else that that is watching, you know, we always want the best for you, but we want whatever it's going to be. So don't feel as if you're disappointing people if the outcome doesn't come out to be you know, puppy dogs and sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it just doesn't. And it could be either within your control or out of control. But we just want you to have the day that you're going to have. So I think it's really important because I know, I just know personally, like when I put that much pressure on, I literally, you know, imploded. So just focus on the task at hand, focus on getting through the progression and enjoy the day. And whatever the outcome is, the outcome is going to be. If it's success, then it's got much sweeter if you get halfway through the walk, and it just doesn't work out. And you know, we you got that far. It's time for the other one. Right. So Right. So I just want to be careful that we don't put too much on you. I guess, I'm trying to be sensitive to that. So yeah, thank you.

Tom Regal: 17:29

And that's, that's, and that's super important. Because regardless of the outcome, you still mean the same to us, you set the same level of respect that we have none of that changes for the for the finish or the non finish. It's all the same. So and that's important. I think a lot of people need to we need to talk about that more. There's this is not, you know, this is not your identity. You are who you are. And that's important, right? This is just the thing is impressive and impressive to get to the starting line. Right with everything that's gone on to get to the starting line is huge. Yeah, kudos on that. Because that's well does it get through that and the rest of it, you're gonna you're gonna do fine. And we're all here for you. So

Elizabeth Simi: 18:14

we're all excited. Let's go. We waiting for

Tom Regal: 18:19

can't wait to get to racing again. It's gonna be

Elizabeth Simi: 18:23

like, Thursday can't come fast enough. Because you know, Thursdays when we get our bags. All that fun stuff. So yeah. Thursday, and then there'll be a come on Sunday.

Tom Regal: 18:37

Then, yeah, Saturday afternoon, you'll be like, Okay, let's just get to separately. Yeah. So cool. So thanks, everybody, for following along. Keep the comments and questions and all that coming to five stars. Thumbs up. The algorithms help help get this out to more and more people and follow along. Melissa, thank you again so much, Kenny. Great. I will catch you on the other side. All right.