I finished with a smile!

Yes, I finished!  It was hard, so hard. 

The race started at 8:00am, but since we were swimming in a pool, only one person can start at a time, so I didn't actually start the race until 9:42am.  (One person starts every 10 seconds, but with 500 racers, it takes a while.)  The start time is based on a swim time that each participant submits before the race, so the fast swimmers go first and the slow swimmers go last.  I was actually 472 out of about 535.  It was hard to relax while waiting for my start. 

I was expecting the swim to be pretty easy.  In my training, I was able to swim the 300m fairly easily and then I would keep swimming up to 800m to work on my stroke and breathing.  But I must have started out too fast, or got caught up in the excitement of everything, or got flustered by swimming with 50 other people in the pool, because I got winded pretty quickly, so I didn't feel like I started out too well.  A lot of people passed me.  A lot.

I was most concerned about the bike ride.  The bike I was using wasn't designed for racing or for efficiency in general, so I knew I would have to work much harder.  I did pretty good and was even able to do a bit better than the pace I rode when I was training.  But a lot of people passed me.  A lot.

After the swim and the bike ride, the run was brutal!  It was so brutal, I had to walk about half of it.  (That's why I look so good in the running picture, I had just had a nice walk and just picked up the pace for the last 3/4 mile). I wasn't alone in my brisk walk; everyone else I saw on the run course was walking most of the time.  So I passed a few people.  Like 3 people.

Casey, the boys, Casey's parents and my brother and his family all came to cheer me on.  It was nice to have their encouragement on the way.  I could hear Coulson yelling for me while I was in the pool, and at the end of the run, I could hear Coulson yelling "Run faster, mom!"  He really wanted to win the race.  He'll have to settle for 166th place (out of 187 women).  And I finished in less than 2 hours!  1 hour, 50 minutes and 8 seconds, to be exact.  I'm already thinking about doing it again...

 I finished the triathlon, but I haven't yet reached my goal for World Vision. I would still like to get $200 more to help fund projects for clean water in Africa.  My fundraising page will still take donations for another month - for those who wanted to make sure I actually finished the race before donating ;-)

A great big thanks to everyone who sponsored me!  This wouldn't have been such a great event without your support!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend