The Triathlon

Well, I did it. Actually, I did it several weeks ago. I finally competed in and finished my first triathlon. I know I know, I've taken an awfully long time to write about it, but I've had a good reason. I'm sure most of you know already since most of you are friends with me on facebook, but for those of you who don't know, one of the triathletes died during the race. He was on the cycle portion of the race when a drunk/high driver hit him from behind killing him instantly. I won't go into the details, but you can click on the link to read the news article yourself.

After the news of the accident arrived at the finish line, the event coordinator decided to stop the triathlon. The only reason I got to finish was purely because I was farther ahead. The whole experience has been a strange one. I was telling Shane (who was also competing, but did not get to finish) that prior to finding out this news, the race was such an amazing experience. The competition was very small (only 325 people) and we met lots of new people while setting up our transition areas and waiting for the time to get in the water. While biking, I can't tell you how beautiful it was to be out in such a scenic area in the early morning and to constantly meet other cyclists who would cheer you on as you passed. When I got to the running stage (my weakest area) I was struggling and had to walk part of it. As I was walking, someone ran past me and said "Come on girl!! You've got this! Get movin'!" It was amazing how something so simple can get a person moving. The whole atmosphere was fantastic! I couldn't wait to do another one! Then, when I crossed the finish line, my friend Monica informed me that someone had died on their bike and they were cancelling the rest of the race. It was an eerie feeling thinking that something like that could have happened.

I haven't gone back out on my bike yet. I'm still too nervous. I'm still training, I'm just using an indoor bike for now. I'm still not sure how I feel about everything. On the one hand it's been a great experience and the journey to get there has NOT been an easy one. I had to over come a LOT of hurdles to get there. On the other hand it made me realize that this sport (and the training involved) is maybe a little more risk than I'm wanting to take. I'm still not sure.

The other day I recieved a letter including all of the times of everyone who finished (I think there was a little over 100 of us). Obviously I don't know how I did in my age group or anything, but I did really well for ME. Here are my times:

1/2 mile swim -- 15:46 (This was at a slow and easy pace -- Not too bad!)

transition 1 -- 3:56 (I took way too long to get my shoes on)

14 mile bike -- 56:06 (Once again, at a slow and easy pace. Still learning how to pace myself)

transition 2 -- 1:37 (still too long)

5k run -- 39:01 (I'm so freakin' slow)

Total time: 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 28 seconds

the guy who came in first? 1 hour and 8 minutes. that dude was fast