Sprint Triathlon

I did a sprint triathlon at the end of August. It was .47 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike ride, and 3.1 mile run. Kind of crazy - I thought it sounded like fun and a good way to encourage me to exercise and become well-rounded. When I signed up for it, I said, "Well, now I just need to buy a bike and learn how to swim." I really did need to buy a bike - I used my piano money and bought one in April, I think, when it got nice enough to use it. And I didn't really need to learn how to swim - I knew how, but just not very well.

So, after lots of bike rides, lots of running, lots of swimming and some scary open-water swimming practice, I did it. It was intense and a little harder than I thought. I was really happy that I practiced the open-water swimming before race day. It was really different to put my face in the water and not be able to see anything. And it was much harder than I expected to catch my breath in the water. And the bike was harder than I expected - there were hills, which I hadn't really practiced on. I had done the distance several times, but not hills except for spinning class, which is very different than the open road. So the bike was harder than I thought - I was too afraid that I would fall over so I sat down on the hill, which was hard. Then my legs were much more tired for the run than I expected. I had practice biking than running, so I knew it would feel different, but it was harder than expected. Anyway, I did it! I finished in 1:54:35. My goal was under 2 hours, so I was happy with it. And I wasn't dead last - yay! That was another of my goals.

I did it with Melissa Lewis and Carolyn McAfee from church. Molly Christensen also came down to take pictures and cheer us on. It was fun to be there with friends. We went down the night before, picked up our packets, went to P.F. Chang's, then went to Scott's house to sleep.

I couldn't sleep very well - I was so nervous and worried about what could go wrong it was hard to get my mind to quiet down. We woke up in the morning, got dressed real quick, and headed down there. The weather was perfect - the water was completely calm and clear and wasn't too cold. It did get a little hot near the end, so the run was a little tough because of the heat. But besides that, it was great. I don't know if I would do it again, but I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's over!

Here's some pictures from the race: