My Triathlon

I knew I needed a goal to help me get back into shape and I knew I wanted to get serious about losing the weight... and since I put on 30 lbs with Kara, I decided to do a triathlon.

I've been running since Kara was 4 weeks old, but transitioning into training on the bike and swimming was harder because of time. To get a good workout in on the bike, you need at least an hour and there isn't a pool close by, so I had to account for travel time too. This is difficult when I am trying to work out at 5 am - before the girls wake up.

The last week before the tri was awful for sleeping. Both girls got colds and neither was sleeping, so my workouts stopped all together on Tuesday.

I did a practice run on the Saturday before my tri. I wanted to make sure I could finish and I wanted a good idea of how long it would take me. It took: 7 1/2 minutes for the 1/4 mile swim, 46 minutes for the 12 mile bike, and 26 minutes for the 3.2 mile run. So I estimated about an hour and a half, including transition times was a good estimate.

While I didn't do it in the time I wanted, I was close and have since been told that you can't really compare different tris to one another because the courses make such a difference.

It was a typical Seattle day and was windy and rainy. Ugh! They made us leave the transition area at 6:45 and my heat didn't start until 8:05 (ten minutes late). That's a long time to stand in the wind in one's bathing suit (I'm too cheap and stubborn to rent a wet suit. I grew up swimming in this lake, so I refuse to rent a wet suit). And because it was so nasty, there was a lot of chop in the water, so every time I tried to breath in my stroke, a wave crashed over my head. I ended up abandoning my goal of sticking to my stroke and did a pathetic version of the breast stroke so I would stop swallowing so much water.

The bike course was really hilly and pretty brutal. On the steepest of the hills, the person in front of me stopped and I had to bail off my bike so I didn't crash. That meant I had to walk the rest of the way up the hill, which was a bit humiliating and really frustrating. Then the run was up hill on the way out and down hill on the way back. Needless to say, my training hadn't prepared me for all of that, but I did well anyway. I keep having to remind myself that I have a 3 1/2 month old and I finished - that's an accomplishment in itself. (I'm a really competitive person!).

So, I finished in 1:35. The swim was 9 1/2 minutes, the bike was 50 minutes, and the run was 29 minutes. And I wasn't very fast in the transitions. Oops! Oh well, I'm proud of myself anyway.

Here are some pics that J and my godfather took. They're not the most flattering, but oh well.


I'm headed into the transition area to get ready for the run. (I'm in J's gray shirt because it was so cold out.)


Here's J's shot of me running. I made fun of him, but I'm impressed he even got one considering he was juggling both girls and trying to take a pic at the same time. (I'm in the red.)

Ewww... the shot from the back. Motivation to keep working out! (Hee, hee)


Watching for Mama


Getting a hug from my #1 fan! (I almost cried when I saw them because it was such an emotional moment to finish and I was so happy to see them)
Here's a little clip that my Godfather took.