My first (almost) tri

"I know now why God didn't let me bike. He knew I would have died."

Getting our swim times. It was a staggered swim; with one of the slower swim times, I was near the end. FYI, I'm in the blue swim top and green shorts. Fashionable, I know.



Getting ready to start.


Trying to at least begin with good form.


Running the roads.


The end is in sight.


VICTORY!


The first church triathalon was this past Saturday. I sort of participated in it. I say "sort of" because I lacked on the biking part.

I won't lie. I cried about it.

My sweet little Huffy mountain bike is about two years old, and, due to me, has been the victim of a lack of care. Therefore, that seven-speed bike is now a three-speed -- specifically speeds 5,6, and 7. Not so good for a road race with hills.

About 50 options were available, I thought, and not a single one panned out. You wouldn't BELIEVE how close I was to getting a bike on several occassions. But nothing worked.

So I swam my 400m in 12 minutes flat -- beating my projected time by 3 minutes AND passing up two people. My swim teacher from childhood was actually at the event supporting her husband, who was participating. I wish I could have swam a little better, haha!

I was very proud of my 15-min estimation when I went into this tri thing. And then, when I was giving my estimated time to the coordinator, Casey, I listened to the two people in front of me.

Guy 1, 50ish years old -- "Well, Casey, I'm going to be going a little slow on this one. You better put me down for eight minutes."

Guy 2, early 20s -- "Put me down for 6. I timed myself at 7 this morning, but I think I can knock it down to six."

Me, 26, next in line -- "Um, yeah..." (whispers) "Fifteen minutes."

After the swim, I cheered everyone on as they started the bike portion. I felt a little better when Casey called out to everyone, "Y'all have a fun time on this race, and when you get to those hills...just remember God made the earth."

No doubt I would have cried on the hills. And died.

I'm seriously going to have issues come training this summer with this Louisiana heat. I ran the 5k, the last leg of the race, around 9:30 a.m. (after my sweet friend Christy brought me a coffee tumbler with my initial and a balloon that said, "You're a star!" How sweet!) As I ran up those hills on the service road, all I could think of was, "Why in the WORLD is it this hot before noon? WHY did I agree to do this? WHY am I running up this hill and not walking it?"

I started my run when the first of the bikers (you know, the serious triathletes) reached the starting point. One dude passed me up and said, "Were you that biker that I kept trying to pass?" Yeah, sure.

As I got in the last mile of the 5k, I started to walk. I mean, dang, it was hot, hilly, and long. I was ready for a break. And some other guy came by and patted me on the back. "Keep on running," he said. "You can do this; we have less than a mile left!" He ran with me for a bit and then sprinted ahead. That's when I returned to walking.

In all, though, I finished my run in 34 minutes -- a personal record. My goal is to run a 5k in 30 minutes, so I'm on my way to that goal. My last 5k, the trail run, was a little over 35 mins, so this was awesome time.

I also finished out my own "tri" by going 13.13 miles on the exercise bike at the house. It felt so nice inside.

Oh, and about the bikes? So get this: Hubby went to the bike shop here in town on Saturday to check to see how much it would cost to get our bikes fixed up. He's taking them in tomorrow. And my dad found an old Schwin bike that he took in just a couple of hours ago to have fixed. None of this happened before the tri. All I can figure is that I was simply not meant to bike the tri.

But that's okay. I enjoyed my time with Stacy and Clinton while pedaling on the exercise bike. Ha!