The Triathlon

I did my 1st triathlon on Saturday in St. George, and I'm a little sore today. It's a sprint tri so it was 1/4 mile swim (in a pool), 12 mile bike, and a 5K run(about 3 miles). I've been a major slacker in training. I don't think I swam for 2 weeks and I hadn't bike for at least a week an a half. Sporadic running in between. But I'm happy with how I finished. My sister-in-law who did it with me set a goal of 1 hour 33 minutes because she'd done one before. I thought that sounded like a good goal. How would I know. I finished in 1 hour and 36 minutes. I'm happy with that since I didn't have a goal until about 20 minutes before the race. I came in 8th in my division (women 21-30), 22nd out of women overall, and 56th out of everyone.

It was freezing. It was supposed to get up to 85 in sunny St. George, but it had to be closer to 50 at 9AM when we were getting started. I as an icicle standing barefoot waiting to get into the warm pool. The swim was a little more exhausting than it had been in the past. The bike was disheartening. This was probably my worst event and it's the longest. Melissa took off after about the first leg. Then after awhile I thought, "I've got to be the last one out here." Then I got passed by about 4 more people. Big kick to the ego. One of the volunteers I think was mocking my bike, or he sincerely likes old school mountain bikes. Then we came to the run. My event of choice. It's like I can regulate my breathing, heart rate and pace and go forever, regardless of the fact that I've already been going for about an hour. That's when I passed everyone. I'm average at the first 2 events, and I think I paced myself really well, but I was feeling good about myself once I started running.
About 2/3 of the way through the run, I felt the good old tendinitis in my knee acting up. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the knee. Oh, wait. I did stab myself in the knee, and it's still swollen right over my IT band. But who cares, I can run through pain. I wanted to lay my bike down and cry for no reason other than despair, but I can run through knee pain. I feel good about it and I'd like to do more. I think Ruth is nuts doing an Olympic length tri.

Matt did the beginner length. I have no idea how far that is, but I'm proud of him for doing it and finishing. Matt and Melissa were both up the night before with food poisoning

Staley did the kids one and she did awesome. This girl loves to run and bike.
She did great on her first length of the pool, then got a little nervous on the way back. But she kept going. And she got a new bike out of the deal. So good for her.

I'd like to thank my two biggest fans for spending so much time in the car to be with me. And especially Wes for getting some slicks and tuning up the bike. Dylan can't say, "Good job, Mama." But I got some fives. My whole family called individually to see how I did. Thanks everyone, and thanks Ev for staying with Mela.

And we went to lunch with Erika (friend from PT school)and Riley and their cute boys. It was really good to see them and catch up.