Monday, August 1, 2011

My second tri....

What a busy week last week was here!  In addition to our oldest son Nate being home on two week leave from his army job at Ft. Benning, GA, I was also finishing preparations for this next school year, and for my second triathlon plus I was taking a bunch of photos of our daily life around here for this year's "Week in the Life" album!

I am going to *try* to post some of the photos from our past week here soon.  Honest!

It is getting late tonight, but I did want to give a short race recap from my second triathlon this past Saturday~ the WIN for KC women's triathlon in Smithville, MO.

The whole week before the triathlon I wondered if the super-hot weather that we have been submerged in would continue and what temperature the lake water would be.  Trust me, swimming in Missouri lakes is only tolerable at best and when the lake water is 90 degrees it is, um, disgusting!

Saturday morning dawned very early for me... I set my alarm for 3:20 am since I needed to leave the house at 4ish in order to arrive at 5 to set up my "transition area"(my little spot where I place my bike, bike gear and running shoes, hat, etc.).

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I arrived bright and early with no problems, got everything set up, found my friends... and then it started to rain!  As I was heading over to get in line for the swim I passed Tom and the children who all had awakened very early to drive up separately in our big van and cheer for me.  They did not have an umbrella and when I passed them they were standing under a tree~ getting pretty drenched!  I felt so bad for them, and even more grateful for such a wonderfully supportive family!  They ended up going and sitting in our big 15-passenger van to wait on the rain to quit.

It was time for me to go line up for the swim.  In this triathlon they started the swim using a "time trial start" which is fabulous for newbies like me because they start one woman every 3 seconds and had all of us line up by what we anticipated our swim time would be.  (So much nicer than a mass group start!) It poured rain and there was so much lightening that the swim start was delayed for an hour.  During that hour we just sat in the rain, already lined up by swim speed for the start.  I *never* even considered that I might get cold at a July triathlon in Missouri!  Never!  But I was... we just sat there getting poured on and I actually got so cold that I began to shiver.  Once the storm moved out of the area we were on... and I was then grateful for that warm lake water!

The swim was only 500 meters and thankfully it went much better for me than my first triathlon earlier this summer when I basically had a panic attack and had to doggie-paddle the whole distance!  I would say that I swam 75% of this race freestyle and breaststroked the rest, so I was slower than I wanted, but I did complete it with a little more finesse than my last race!

Next up, the bike portion of the race.  I do love riding my bike!  The roads were wet and so I was a little more cautious than I might have been usually, but still had a fabulous time!

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The bike portion was done *way* too soon for my liking, and then it was off on a 5K run.  Thankfully, it was still cloudy at that point, so even though it was very humid, I didn't have the added challenge of running in the sun.

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My run was a lot slower than I wanted, but all in all I was pretty pleased at how well my hip held up since I hadn't run in 4 weeks... well I had faithfully been deep-water running and using elliptical, but it really isn't the same as "for real" running.

It was so cute, at the end of my run several of the boys ran out to find me, then ran in and completed the race with me.  "Come on Mom!  You can run faster than that!"  They'd be such great coaches!

I'm hooked on the challenge of triathlon~ I have *so* much to improve on, but I'm having a blast doing that.  I've made some great friends and am already looking ahead to my last tri this summer in a few weeks and planning for some longer distance events next summer!

How are you challenging yourself this summer?

**edited: after I posted this I decided to post this little disclaimer: This post is not intended in any way to place a burden on anyone's shoulders.  I still remember, very vividly, how taxing and busy the years were when I had only little guys at home, and no big helpers!  Please remember that my "baby" is now 4  1/2 years old and I have many, many older helpers in this season of my life, plus many older children who actually like to run/bike/swim with me!  This wasn't always the case.  Please don't get me wrong, I *loved* those blurry, busy years of caring for our quickly growing family, but now I am gradually entering a different season of life and triathlon is one of the things that we have decided to pursue, both as a family doing workouts together, and yes, even individually, for me.  So please, please understand that I only posted this to encourage you to pursue being your best and glorifying the Lord in all you do, not to make anyone feel burdened or discouraged.  OK?

5 comments:

  1. I am soooooo proud of you!!!! Way to go! And what a sweet family!!!

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  2. Thanks Jenn! I agree, my family is the *best*!!

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  3. How exciting!!! You are doing great...just being out there, stretching yourself....way to go!!

    ~Cinnamon

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  4. Amazing! Good for you to get out there and be active. It's great that the whole family shares that interest...makes all the difference. Keep it up!

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  5. Thanks Cinnamon and Carmen~ it most certainly *has* stretched me to do this! Keeps me humble!

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