My Triathlon Results!

Oh man! I did it! That race was one of the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do! I almost died! Here is a breakdown of what I went through...

(WARNING: I say “stupid” a lot in the biking portion! That’s all I have to say…)

Oh, I just found out my official time... it is 1:55:17. I went to the website that was sponsoring this event, and I found some pictures of me! DON'T LAUGH!!

Swimming:
I started the race with a ¼ of a mile swim. I had to wait in a line before I could jump in to swim 8 whole laps. I did pretty well with the swimming. I didn’t really have a hard time at all with it. I did notice though, after I got out of the pool and started running toward my bike, I was pretty dizzy. I had to get my grips on the ground!

Here's me swimming on the last lap!

Here I am getting out of the pool. Yeah... sort of embarrassed by this picture! My boobs are totally hanging out!!


Biking:
Oh boy... here we go. Right after I got on my bike and started my 10 miles, I immediately started praying for help!! I didn’t think I was going to do it at all. For some reason, biking is one of the hardest things for me. The bike route that they set up was a 5 mile loop so I had to make it around twice. Towards the end of the loop, they decided to put in a huge hill for us to bike up. My first attempt, I tried changing my bike in a lower gear as I was going up the hill and my chain fell off. By sure luck, one of my good friends was behind me and he jumped off his bike and put my chain back on. (Thanks again Rich!!) I had just a little tiny bit left to go up the hill and I had to get off my bike and walk the rest of the way up. I felt so stupid and felt like a failure.

But oh no, my stupidity and failure wasn’t done there!!! On my second loop around, I noticed that I was getting pretty thirsty so I decided that I was going to get a drink from the aide stations they have set up. When I reached a station, I was going pretty fast so I decided to slow down a bit so I could catch the water cup. Well, I failed miserably!!! I slowed down too much and I missed the cup the volunteer was trying to hand me. I lost control of my bike and crashed! I veered toward the right and hit the curb and went flying on the grass. When I landed, I thought my race was over. I thought I broke my leg but luckily, I just bruised my knee and shin pretty good. I was able to get back up and another volunteer had to put my chain back on my bike. Man, that poor bike! I’m sure it was screaming at me saying, “Hello Stupid!! Learn how to ride me!!” I was able to barely recover emotionally and physically by then before I had to head up that stupid hill again. At my second attempt at the hill, I didn’t even get halfway up before I jumped off my bike again panting and gasping for air. I just wanted to throw in the towel. I was done! (Oh... and by the way. I wanted to thank all of those who laughed at me when I told them I fell off my bike! I would LOVE to see you try and do this triathlon!!)

Running:
After I got off my bike and, by the way, was barely able to lift it up to put it back on the rack, I started off for my 3.2 mile run. I only took about 20 steps into the run and decided that I just had to walk. The running portion of the race was also split up into a 2 loop pattern. Emotionally and physically, I was done with the race. I just wanted to give up right then. I thought that I was going to walk the whole running portion. I was pretty upset with myself.

Halfway into the first loop, I started thinking that running wouldn’t be a bad idea to try! It took me a couple of times of running and stopping to finally find a good running rhythm. I was able to complete the second loop with very limited walking. I was really surprised that my body had more energy and my mind was able to focus on finishing the race.


Here is a video that Troy took of me running to the finish line…



So, after my wonderful experience, I’m not sure if I would try another one of these Triathlons. Who knows what the future holds for me. I would like to run another ½ marathon though. That was pretty awesome.