I Tried

Last January, some friends and I had a girlfriends' weekend. There were seven of us. We all used to go to church together, and we all had our babies together. There's a bond there... 6 of us had babies in either 2001 or 2002, then 4 of us had babies in 2005, and the other one had 3 babies in 3 years, starting in 2006, and she was friends with the rest of us when we were having ours. Kim moved away in 2006, so the rest of us made it a getaway to her house.

Anyway, two of these friends have become triathletes in the last 3 years or so. They've both dropped quite a lot of weight and they've both become superwomen. There's no debating that. They'd probably argue with that statement, but one word would put any fight to an end. IRONMAN. They're both doing the Ironman in Coeur d'Alene on June 21st. They are superwomen.

In discussing their new passion for triathlons, they brought up a very friendly little triathlon called the Danskin. Danskin does them all over the country, and there's one in our city, so why not? The idea sounded like fun, and one by one we said, "If she'll do it, then I will," until there were five of us committing to do it. At that time it was 4 months away. (One of our friends was moving, so she couldn't do it, and another one is deathly afraid of water, so she wasn't going to do it, no matter how much peer pressure we exerted.) Since three of us were first-timers, and we were more interested in doing it together than getting a good time, we decided we'd take it "easy", swimming with noodles, and walking the run, stuff like that. This was supposed to be an easy day for our superwomen, being only 2 weeks before the Ironman.

So in the months before the race, I tried to start training. I could walk an hour without really wearing myself out. I tried to bike, but I found it very difficult to fit it in between walking Big Girl to school, and Hubby's departure for work. Also, I couldn't go very far before my legs would scream, beg me to go back home. I used a borrowed bike since I don't have one of my own.

Just about the time I started to get a rhythm of training going, I had my tooth problems, and I was really worthless for a while. Then when that was all done and over, had my crown, and no more pain, then the job stuff started up. That's about when I was finding out about the opening, and spending more time in my mom's classroom when I'd drop of Big Girl for school. Mom's conference period was first thing, so I wasn't intruding on a class or anything. I'd just stay there, and talk to her for a little while, and then I'd go home just in time for Hubby to go to work.

The race really did float to the back of my mind, and it stayed there until about a week ago.

Then the fear began.

I can swim, I wasn't worried about that. Several of us got together to do an open water swim (which is very different from swimming in a pool), and I did fine with that. I know I can walk for a long way without problems. It was the biking that had me in a sweat just from thinking about it.

So the day before the race, we all took our bikes to the race site and racked them in the transition area, and got our registration packets. Reality really set in then. I was there, I had a number, I had my bike in position ready for this to happen... At least something was "ready."

A very fun part of the whole thing was that Kim was in town, and staying at my house. Unfortunately we couldn't have the slumber party we both wanted. We had to be at the race site at 5 AM the next day, so we gave ourselves a 9 PM bedtime.

So the next day, we got up, got there, and met up with the other girls. We went to the transition area and set out all the things we'd need: bike helmets, shoes, shirts, etc. We got ourselves ready and went to the opening ceremony. Then wave by wave women entered the water and started the race. We were in the second to last wave. As we entered the water, my emotions really got to me. The magnitude of what I was doing really hit me... By the way, it's not a good idea to cry with goggles on. It doesn't work out too well.

The swim went well. I didn't ever get to a point where I thought I was in trouble. It was a long way, but it wasn't terrible. (I'm still not going to sign up for a 2.5 mile swim like my Ironwomen counterparts!) I even hit a stride where I did breast stroke for a while. That worked for me. I don't do American Crawl at all. I just never have been able to get the breathing right with that stroke. Anyway, I got through the swim feeling pretty good.

The biking just about killed me. It's not the 12 mile distance that did me in. It was the HILLS!!! I did walk my bike up a few hills, but I got through it, and that's what's important. I did have a near fall, and at that point, about mile 6, my emotions took over again. But this time it was PANIC. I had to sit on the side of the road and regain my breathing and my composure. I really expected to wipe out at some point, especially when going downhill at about 24 mph, but it didn't happen! Yay! I have never been as happy to be finished with something as I was when I finished the biking. Kim had finished before me, and when I saw her in the transition area, I went to her and hugged her, sobbing. I was so relieved.

Then we did the walk together. It was such a relaxing time. We chatted the whole way. Compared to what we had all been through already, that was a piece of cake!

In case you didn't already know, tri is the verb form of triathlon. (I don't really like the verbification of nouns that seems to happen all over the place these days, but whatever... that's another topic for another post.) I just wanted to clarify the title of this post. I TRIed. And I FINISHED. And that makes me a winner. :-) I have a medal to prove it!

During the triathlon they had music playing and a DJ obnoxiously talking, especially at the beginning. Anyway, during the swim, I heard Cake's "Short Skirt, Long Jacket," playing. It really motivated me. That's my favorite Cake song. So that's the song in my head for today.