mcmel's mcblog: and then i ran a triathlon

yes. me.

i don't even know when this all began, but it began with my husband. one night we were sitting in bed and dave said, "i want us to run a triathlon." i'm sure i thought to myself how insane he was, but he wouldn't let it go, so i did what i always do- i researched it. and then, somehow... i agreed. we started training in february spending 6 days a week at the gym. we chose a race done by our local park district. 5 long months of training, and now i guess we can call ourselves triathletes. sprint triathletes. it was tough, but so worth it. i had 2 goals for the race: 1. finish. 2. finish in under 2.5 hours. i accomplished both! although i was near the bottom of my age group- i didn't finish last, and i didn't finish last overall!

swim- 400 m. the swim was probably the toughest. i'm not an incredible swimmer- i lack a lot of skill, and i usually end up swallowing water. we trained pretty hard for the swimming and then discovered 2 days before the race that we had been training in a pool that was HALF the size of the pool we were actually going to swim in, and that we had been swimming HALF the distance. really, really, really dumb. so i basically had to swim double what i had been practicing for 5 months. so dumb. the water is choppy and it's pretty hard to swim w\ that many people to a lane. i had a really tough time.

bike- 15 mi. i was probably the most prepared for this part. dave & i had spent the last couple weekends doing rides and we did a few that were around 15 miles that i felt really good about. it was definitely hard riding w\o someone to cheer you along and push you. i had to be that for myself. i had to keep singing "don't stop, don't give up" (from yo gabba gabba) during the tough parts- and it was tough. very hilly! i was pretty much dead after the ride, but i was passing people, and that made me feel good!

run- 5k. this was definitely my weakest event as i am NOT a runner. i unfortunately wrecked my legs during the bike and was totally unprepared to run. :( i ended up speed walking 95% of the run b\c i could hardly use my left leg. it was also super muggy by that point, but i kept pressing on- i would run when i could, and then walk again. the "run" went by super quickly, and before i knew it, i was running over the finish line into dave's arms in tears! i did it! and while i'm a bit disappointed with my times- i was definitely one of the slowest overall, i just know i need to keep working.