Triathlon....... I Did It!

Hooray... my first triathlon in 4 years is done! My overwhelming thought is - I'm glad I did it, and had fun; but I'm not planning on doing another one anytime soon!

I've been sort-of training for it over the past few months, but I knew that I wasn't doing as much as I should have. I only rode my bike about once a week, and really should have gone at least 2 or 3 times a week; I ran more regularly than that, but still not enough; and I only swam once (though I wasn't at all worried about the swimming part!). So I knew going into Saturday's race that it wasn't going to be comfortable, but I knew I could do it - my goal was just to finish and not worry about racing hard. That turned out to be a good thing.........

This particular triathlon was a 400 yard swim, 13 mile bike, and 3 mile run. The swim went great......... no surprise that was my strongest leg, despite really not training for it at all! (I don't know the breakdown of the other legs, but on the swim leg I placed 72nd overall out of over 400 racers!) It was fun passing a lot of people, too, but that didn't last long.... I started getting passed as I was running out of the water up to the transition area, and that uphill run after the swim was much harder than I had though it would be! I had a hard time getting my shoes clipped into my bike to start off the ride, but after I got that figured out, the bike went fairly well. Of course I got passed a lot, but I passed a few people too, especially going downhill! The 3 mile run was quite a challenge though. I can run that distance just fine ordinarily, but doing it after the swim & bike was a different story. My legs felt like rubber coming out of the transition, but I was determined to keep running & not walk - until I got a terrible stitch in my side that just would not go away. At that point I was really glad I could remind myself that I was doing this to finish, not to win or anything, so I was totally okay with walking when I needed to, simply to keep moving forward! So I did it - in less than two hours, which was one of my goals - it wasn't comfortable, but crossing that finish line was a great feeling!

Matt came with me and was so helpful and encouraging. He was a great cheerleader! I saw him several times over the course of the race - at the beginning & end of the bike, and also at the beginning & end of the run, and of course at the finish. (He took pictures, which I'll add later if anything came out.) I am so thankful to have such a loving husband!!

Next time, I'm going to look for a team that needs a good swimmer, and let some other people train for & do the bike & run!!