My first "Tri"

Why I want to "Tri"

I have a lot of runner friends who do marathons which I think is awesome. I'd like to do a marathon but you'd have to spend soooo much time -- er, running. I don't actually like running. I figured marathon was out.

Last summer, my friend Micol told me she was doing a triathlon. And I thought: Wow! You have to be so well rounded. You get to swim in a lake or an ocean. It actually sounds fun. But Micol was a competitive runner in college and is built like a superhero. At the time, it didn't occur to me that it was a sport that a normal person can do.

Then, I started meeting some normal people who do it...

After about a year of having a secret desire to be a triathlete (and feeling self-conscious about the extra weight from my pregnancy) I picked out a race and started training.

I found a wonderful book called Slow, Fat, Triathlete: Pursue Your Athletic Dreams in the Body You Have Now. Her massage is that a fat, slow (and in my case, older) person has just as much right to train and compete as the skinny person who will win the race. She's a very inspirational writer -- and she's funny. I heartily recommend this book everyone whether your goals are athletic or not.

A 10-Week Journey

I made a training program for myself and started checking workouts off my training sheet. Every time I completed a workout I felt a bit like a superhero. I need to say here how thankful I am to my husband and father-in-law. Every checkmark on this page implies childcare support. A LOT OF IT. Thanks!!!!

My friend, Michael Cooney said of running something like, "I love running -- but the first 15 minutes of any run sucks." I found that comment INCREDIBLY helpful. It didn't help me fall in love with running, but it did help me get through the suckiest part. Every time. :)

Somewhere along the line, I decided to enroll in a swimming class. I used to be on swim team (during the Reagan Administration) but I never really learned any technique before this class. I'm finding that swimming builds nicely on my long-standing yoga practice and that swimming is my strongest event.

The Big Day

When we arrived at Island Beach State Park, it was 40 degrees. This didn't worry me nearly as much as the surf report which called for chop. I had chosen this event because it gave me the most time to train before the end of the season. It was short (.25 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run). And the bike & run course was FLAT. What I didn't respect when I chose the event was how dicey the Atlantic can be in mid-October.

Standing on the beach, I couldn't tell how bad the surf actually was. I was too excited. I was thinking, "In 2 hours, I will be a triathlete!" Mythical. I was in the last wave to start: over 40 women and over 50 men. Everyone was super nice. I think when you are facing the ocean you feel less like you are competing against each other, and more like you are challenging nature. The starter sounded and we ran into the ocean. The course went out a long way before it turned to run along the shore. It way was over my head long before the turn at the first buoy. Then I got hit by a big wave. It threw me down but the water was deep enough that I didn't hit bottom. I had never been thrown by a wave so far off shore. It knocked my goggles off. I swallowed a bunch of water and threw up a little. I was petrified. I stopped swimming and considered turning back. I wanted to cry. 10 weeks of training. I was so sure of myself a second ago. Swimming is supposed to be my event. One of the over-60 ladies I had been speaking to on the shore put her hand on my shoulder and asked if I was OK. Yes. I was OK. A little panicked, but OK. I started swimming again. I got hit by a second wave that took my goggles off. It wasn't as bad the second time. I felt so thankful that my friend Micol had lent me her wetsuit: at least I wasn't fighting to stay afloat! After I rounded the first buoy I rolled onto my back. I started doing a move I learned in my swimming class called "sculling." It's really a wrist conditioner, not so much a stroke. I was getting nowhere fast. But I was able to look at the sky and let my breathing and my heart rate come back down. When I relaxed enough, I started doing backstroke. Before long I passed the next buoy. I picked my head up to survey my progress. To my surprise, there were still a bunch of swimmers behind me. Some of them were from the previous waves! I turned over a resumed my freestyle. I finished the swim in 18:48. It was a little less than twice the time it would have taken in a pool.

I felt a mix of emotions coming out of the ocean. The overwhelming one was: "I survived." But I also felt a little discouraged. I was still shaken by the panic and I was disappointed at my swim time. I know I wasn't dead last -- but I was worried I wouldn't make my goal of finishing in under 2 hours. I had pictured myself running out of the ocean to the transition. But I was walking with barely enough wind to thank the volunteers.

When arrived in the transition area, they were playing Kirsty MacColl's "In these Shoes" which is one of my all-time favorite songs. I was a big shot in the arm for me. I was singing along with Kirsty and taking extra time to regain confidence. They time your transitions in a triathlon. (Transitions are the "costume and prop" changes between the 3 sporting events.) And even though I took double what I took in T1 practice in order to regroup, my transitions were strong-- it's an old theater skill, after all. I've probably had a lot more practice than most athletes.


By the time I started biking, I was back to feeling AMPED. I was warmer. The day was warmer -- and downright gorgeous. I was happy to be outside. I was sure now that I would complete my race and determined not to let time get me down. The bike course was out and back. Lots of people passed me on the way out. I kept reminding myself that I have a clunky old mountain bike and I shouldn't sweat it. I started singing "Boys from the County Hell" to get my cadence up. After the halfway point I could see how many people were still biking out. Some of them were young, fit looking people too. The swim must have killed them. My bike time was 41:26. Not a record in the cycling world-- but 3 minutes under my personal best!

Chris was waiting for me at the beginning of the run. I told him I'd see him in 40 minutes. By now I was absolutely elated! I was cheering on random racers -- especially other woman. I kept shouting "Hooray for the Ladies! All the Ladies!!" I was thanking all the volunteers. I wasn't thinking about time AT ALL anymore. Only how happy I felt. I said before that running isn't my favorite. I ran a 5K before I was pregnant and came in at 45 minutes. I was second to the last in the whole race that day. So, imagine my surprise when I completed my run in 35:16! I could not believe it!!

Overall my time was 1hr 41min 40sec -- well under my 2hr goal. And I wasn't dead last. Not by a long shot. Oh, and my best sporting event was, far and away, the swim. Panic and all.

So, next up: the One Hour Postal Swim in January and Escape From Ft. Desoto in April. Anyone in the Tampa area have a bike I can borrow? Or, better yet, care to join me? You have six months to train...