It Ain't Braggin If You Can Do It

A little over two months ago, my dad called me one day at work. He wanted to sign up for a triathlon, but before he did so, he was making sure it wasn't going to interfere with my birthday plans. A Sunday morning triathlon? Five days after Yom Horton? I didn't seen any conflicts. After I hung up the phone, I got to thinking about my dad and his triathlons. He completed his first one three years ago, and this one would be his third for this year. I was just thinkin ... I called him back and asked what was involved in a sprint triathlon. 300 yard indoor swim, 13.5 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. It sounded challenging, but ... I was just thinkin. I asked to see his training schedule, so he sent it over. By the end of the day, my mom called talking about how excited Daddy was that I was gonna do this with him and how proud she was of me for being up to the challenge. Yeah, I was in deep. Thankfully, my roommate was up for the fun, too, so I had an in-town training partner. With just 10 weeks to go, we began following Big Dave's training plan. Running, biking, or swimming almost daily, and occassionally linking one to another to get a feel for the big event. Let me just say, I'm not sure anything really prepares you fully for Race Day, but I was as ready as I was gonna be by this weekend. And Big Dave was wound up! :-)

Here we are on our way to the staging area where we'd put our bikes while we swam and lay out our shoes and socks.

There were over 500 racers for this inagural event!

We swam first. The first person gets in the pool at the start time, then they put racers in every 10 seconds. You're lined up based on the swim time you turned in. Since I had no idea what my swim time was when I signed up, I told them 15 minutes to be sure I didn't get caught up with a buch of serious competitors (my goal, after all was just to finish!). Turns out, I'm not a bad swimmer. I finished in 8 minutes flat, 2 minutes faster than Daddy's time! I actually passed several people who got in the water ahead of me. :-)

Here I am about to mount my bike for the ride -- notice the beauty of my Wal-Mart special. Before I attempt this again, I will be shopping for a racing bike.

Here's Daddy hopping on his bike and taking off for the ride.

I need to say that my Mom was a TROOPER during this entire event. She cheered and encouraged and documented with photography all morning long. At this point, however,I was less than a mile from finishing the ride, coming up a slope, just ahead of dead last, and not feeling like much of a champion. She cheered for me like I was in first place, and I believe I told her to "shh!" Sorry, Mom, I really did appreciate it!

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for. Jaclyn says I don't have ot tell you that I came in 3rd from last, but I'm really not ashamed. I had several nightmares a few weeks ago that I was dead last and that the whole place was cleared out and my "fans" were standing there with folded arms, annoyed yelling, barely even acknowledging my finish. This was not the case at all. They began yelling as soon as they could see me coming toward the finish, and they clapped, cheered, held up signs, and took pictures till I made it all the way across both mats. And, I finished nearly 10 minutes under my personal goal. I was thrilled -- and exhausted! I don't know that I'm a triathlete, not sure I wanna do this again or not, but I'm so glad that I did it at all. It felt amazing to set a goal like that, to struggle hard to achieve it, and have an incredible group of family and friends celebrate it with me in the end.