Tri

I did it!

Thank you so much for your wonderful words of encouragement! It was a great event and I had a wonderful experience. It took me about as long as I had imagined that it would (2 hours) and I was one of last girls to finish. But I don't care!

I had chosen this event because it was for women only and really geared towards first timers. All of the staff was very nice and encouraging and understood that most of us had no clue as to what we were doing. The other participants were also very encouraging (women's nature?). There was a lot of "Keep it up, ladies!" and "You're almost there!" between participants during the events.

I did better in the swim than I thought I would even though I did the breast stroke the whole way! I kept thinking of when Grandaddy taught me to swim out in the bay and would offer me a quarter to swim to the dock. Their house was in walking distance of a convenience store so some candy money was a sweet deal! I'll be looking for that quarter, Grandaddy!

The bike part was a wee bit more challenging than I had expected. More like a helluva lot more challenging. It was hills the whole way. Boo on hills. On one particular hill I had to get off and walk. But I got my rear back on (just in time to coast down the hill!) and hobbled my way back in.

Then was the run. I didn't hydrate very well on the bike so an actual run was out of the question until I got some water down. I tried to jog at the 3/4 mile point and my thighs were like lead weights. Ugh. Once the water took hold, though, I was able to jog the last mile and a half. Yay!

The finish line was sweet. There were several hundred people around and they announce my name and hometown and everyone erupts in cheers and applause. Very nice.

I learned some valuable lessons that will be very helpful if I try one again. As I told G&G, my time can only get better!