Try a "Tri" Again

So my last triathlon was September 2009 when I did the Blackland Sprint Triathlon here in Plano.  Almost 3 years later,  I have decided to go for it again.  My first triathlon was in June of 2006 when my old college roommate and I decided to do one together.  She lived in Temple at the time and I was up here in Allen.  We had both wanted to do one, so we decided to train on our own and meet in Austin for the Danskin Women's Triathlon.  I trained up to what I thought was good enough.  I swam, biked, and ran.  I had to teach myself how to swim by watching YouTube videos and my husband thought I was going a bit crazy practicing in front of the computer and then I would go to the natatorium to practice swimming and wind up leaving frustrated because I couldn't get the damn swim cap on and was too embarrassed to stay there with the high school swim team on the other side of the pool lapping me.  I remember specifically leaving the natatorium the first time and going to my car and sitting in the parking lot and not leaving until I got my swim cap on...and then, I drove home with it on...by golly, I was going to learn  to swim if it was the death of me.  So for that race, I finally got swimming down enough to do some laps and I would go and swim the exact distance 750m and nothing more. After all, the race was going to be 750m, why would I swim 800?  ha ha ha...silly girl...

The bike was the same way- I was using my old mountain bike, but I had road wheels put on it.  I didn't want to invest a lot of money in a road bike if I wasn't going to use it.  So off I would go on my trusty little bike and I would ride 12 miles and get off and be done.  Never trained on hills...apparently I forgot that Austin is hill country...that was soon realized on race day!

The run I had down...no problem...I could run a 5k no biggie....or so I thought...




So come race day, Kathy and I are so excited.  The race was all women and I think it was 2,000 if I remember right.  They let you go in waves of 50 and if you wanted to be in the same wave as your friend you could request to be in an open wave and we both had done that...We did not realize that would put us in the last few waves which would give us a start time of about 9am in June in Texas!  We had been up since at least 4:30 or 5:00 because you had to get to the site to park and be bussed down to the race start since there were so many people.  So by the time started we were exhausted...but so pumped!

The lake in the morning..see how far out those canoes are!  Yeh, it was a long swim!

Kathy and I so excited...no idea what we had signed up for still!

Stuart trying on my swim cap before the race...I just realized he has really only known me to always be racing...kind of cool.

The whole family was their, even my mom went...but she took the pictures!

So off we go, I swam the 750m, biked the 12 mile super hilly bike, and finally got to the run only to realize it was off road (hated trail running at the time so I wasn't happy). I finished and crossed the line with Kathy together.  I may have cussed her some on the run when it was 100 degrees and I was running UP hill to the finish, or when I was going on the bike and came to a 90 degree turn in the road and a straight up hill that some people were literally walking their bike to the top...but I finished.  I think that was one of my proudest moments, that and my 50K this year.  I realized that I am no super athlete (obviously - I bet Michael Phelps didn't learn to swim on YouTube) just your regular every day mom who made fitness important and with triathlons, it was fun.

Me and Kathy...I might have been second guessing my sanity at this point...

Our swim wave - first tri...

Off to climb hills on my little mountain bike...

Finishing with Kathy on that first race...

I was hooked on triathlons after that.  I liked that when I got bored with swimming, I could bike, and then run.  I invested in a road bike and I did triathlons for 3 years and made several friends from church and the gym that were getting into triathlons too. We had a little core group that would go and do them and we had fun. 

Danskin the next year...

My tri girls at Cooper Sprint in McKinney

Mckinney Tri Historic (I think?? - they all look the same)

Between 2006 and 2009 I did 14 triathlons: 11 sprint and 3 olympic distance races.

After that I got more into running and have been ever since, so for the last 2 1/2 years all I have been doing is running.  Well when a friend (ie. Elaine) started talking about wanting to do her first tri, I was all over it.  Then I met a friend that moved from Georgia back to Texas (you know who you are Mrs. Turtles) that was into triathlons also.  And then one day I opened my facebook to a message from another girlfriend, Ms. Kristi, who wanted to get more info on triathlons because she was thinking of adding it in as cross training! It was like all the signs...I had to do a triathlon! If I didn't, I would be the one left out!  So far, we have Catherine, Elaine, Cassie, DK, Kristi, and Michelle (she doesn't really count as she is only doing some little race called an Ironman though...maybe you've heard of it??? :-)

So this spring, I have been tossing around the idea that I wanted to do them some more, but I don't want my running base to diminish.  Looking back on all my triathlon logs, my running mileage was only running 10-14 miles a week...My running goal these days is 25 miles a week...that's a big difference, so I am going to have to find a way to get in two good bikes and two good swims on top of that.  I think the bike trainer will help with that and all the people that just recently got road bikes and are wanting to ride...it is going to be awesome...I love biking, but I would much rather go with friends and now I have lots of biking friends....they are really runner friends in disguise but I'm trying to convert a few.  

So long story short, my last Sprint distance tri was Sept 2009, but my last Olympic distance tri was July 2008...so what have I gone and done...I am a sucker for a good deal and when the Active Schwaggle came out yesterday for one of the triathlons that I was planning on doing and I realized that I could do the Olympic for the same price as the Sprint, my little brain decided that was what I should do and pushed the purchase button!  I had kind of been thinking about the olympic, but not enough to really commit to it yet...I guess I panicked...So I have an Olympic triathlon in 6 weeks...oh and I also realized tonight that I have a half marathon 5 days before it...It would be nice if I looked at my race schedule before I plan more races...oh well, it wouldn't be any fun that way. 

So I am very much looking forward to "tri"-ing again and so excited that all my friends convinced me to get back into it.  They probably don't know how much influence they had on me, but I am thankful to all of them for bringing it up, talking about it, asking me questions, and all that because it lit that little flame under my butt to do it again and I have really wanted to for a while.  I have missed it.

And to those of you who think you could never do a triathlon...never say never...all you have to do is watch a few YouTube videos and practice putting that swim cap on BEFORE you leave the house and you will be in good shape...or at least two steps ahead of me!