Triath blog recap:

Tracey and I accomplished this amazing event last weekend!

A TRIATHLON!

We went to this guru guy Saturday on our way to pick up all the necessary equipment. I loved the feeling of getting a swim cap, our helmet and bike number stickers, and our race numbers for our shirt.

The dude was a silly, energetic old man who has insanely done 257 or so triathlons. He talked all about how people think they can just show up the morning of and participate with no problems---yet we saw these people the morning of and we giggled at their stress and rushing around getting ready.

So we set up our bike Saturday and drove the course. After picking up some $8 goggles for me at Sports Chalet we headed home to pack, set up, and practiced our transitions for the morning. EXHILERATING!

That night we also packed my Beetle, and were off to relax and focus on the morning to come.

The morning of the event I got up at 4:55 a.m. (5 mins. before my alarm even went off). I was ready, even though I had only had those 4 hours and 55 mins. of rest, staying up late watching SNL with Matt.

Tracey and I were delirious with lack of sleep, but were feeling well preped by the guru, relaxed, and ready to do this.

The Beetle parked itself by our swim start and we stretched, warmed up, and observed everyone getting ready for the event. It was nice to have everything set and good, and watch all the other people slop around all nervous.

Then it was time for the first wave to start and it was a couple hundred old guys. Almost everyone wore wetsuits, and certainly everyone wore a swim cap and goggles. It was surreal waiting around and watching the swimmers prep and actual swim----like dolphins out there splashing all around.

I slewed out a bunch of scared, insecure comments about my swimming ability and all the while Tracey encouraged me :) THEN WE HOPPED IN AND Matt showed up to film/photo us getting used to the water. A few huge deep breathes, nervous brain battles, and hyperventilating, and we were on our way with a 60 second countdown.

We didn't even realize it was all about to go down, then I heard the counter guy say 5, 4, 3, 2, ...1 SPLASH, SPLASH, splish, splashy... OH MY!

The swimming was unbelievable the most intense physical workout that I've ever done in my entire life! HANDS DOWN!

I slopped all around keeping my eye on a huge orange bouy and Tracey who was so smoothly doing the backstroke. Finally the end arrived and as my hand hit the sand floor of the bay 2-3 times (like the guru taught us) I got up and was seriously out of it.

I tried to get my swim cap off quickly b/c I didn't want anymore alien pictures going down, HA! The back string of my wetsuit was all tangled and took a good 45 seconds to manuever off velcro and unzipping--all the while running to our bike station.

1, 2...4,000, 17, 64...3, and 4....ah there's Tracey and our bikes, I'm finally.adjkwewfjk ;lkadjf k lthuuuuuu....there! Bike rack 4!

Changing out of the wetsuit and swimsuit (eh-hem, Tracey no comment please) was an all thumbs mind boggling event. I loved every second of it as Matt took photos of Trace hilariously posed for photos, and patiently waiting for me to GET MOVING!!!!!!!!!!

Long story short---as I know Trace and Matt already wrote about all this...biking was long and harder than I expected b/c we didn't realize we had this whole backstretch of like 4 straight miles with no people cheering, and add on 300 people passing us on 10 speed bikes.

Like Tracey said biking transitions were super jello-leggedly fun and laughing full! We started running and both felt so smooth and in control as opposed to the fwailing bike work, and...oh yeah ...the other event ...swimming. Did that even happen, what in the world kind of athletic event is this?!

There were more hills than we would have liked to see, regardless of the guru teling us the run (especially) was "flat as a pancake"!? I guess his pancakes include 2 huge mountains to climb.

Anyways, after completing this triath I felt like I could do anything in the world. At least athletically. And so we shall try another event in two weeks called, Muddy Buddy! I LOVE THIS!

I am so happy Tracey has helped me and agreed to get involved with these events that teach me self discipline, the importance of endurance and training no matter what the task is, and the the value of working hard for something and completing it.

Side notes: gotta buncha free jamba juice smoothies, cooler cup, stress squishing things shaped like fruit (I'll ...take...the ....gree...eeen...one lady---"oh you mean the lime one?! ---just a delirious moment I had and enjoyed).

This was a long bloggy blog blog! I'm out!