Triathlon!!

A dream came true! On July 18 we did our first triathlon! This all started back in April when I found this sprint distance race (1/2 mi swim, 12 mi bike & 3.1 mi run) scheduled for July and I also found a training program that did not seem too hard. If only I had a training partner to help me along... so of course I thought of Nancy, my good friend next door who I can usually rope into crazy things. She turned out to be pretty interested and she showed the training program to her husband Mike who also though it looked doable. With the three of us on board, Rich was helpless before the power of peer pressure and we were off and training!

Obsessed is probably not a strong enough word to describe the four of us over the next 12 weeks or so. Everything revolved around the race. Just ask Hannah - she was pretty sick of hearing about it. We were all so good about our training program. Luckily, Rich's work cooperated until the very last week. This was okay because that was the lightest week of the training program, but for a while it looked like he might not even be able to get to the race. He worked crazy hours that week, but he made it.


So here we are packing up to go to the race. We went the night before. There is Rich with his constant companions - the briefcase and the laptop!



Here are Nancy & me flexing our guns before the race! :)


Here are the four of us ready to go. Nancy & I were in the women only race that went first. An hour and a half later Rich & Mike went in the coed race over the same course. Since they were not starting as early as us, they got to come see us off for the swim. Now this race was in Racine, Wisconsin ans the swim was in Lake Michigan. According to the announcer, at the time of our race, the water temperature was 59 degrees! It was sooooo cold. Thank goodness we had our wet suits but even then it was so cold on my face that I physically could not put my face into the water for about the first quarter of the swim. Every time I tried I could not breathe and my heart was racing. Finally, I got used to it and was able to settle into a rhythm. Other than the cold, the swim was really nice because the race was pretty small - only about 200 people - so there really was no chaos at the start. That was great!
The wet suits help so much with the swim. They really make you more buoyant and you can swim faster. And if by chance you get tired, you can just hang out and float!


Yay, we did it! Nice picture with the porto potties in the background, I know! :)

I was so pumped after the race! It was so much fun! It is such a great feeling to set a goal and then achieve it. And to do it all together made it even more awesome. Mike & Nancy make the best training partners. So now that we worked so hard to get into shape, we are going to try to do 2 more races this season and then next year maybe try a longer one. Come and join us!