Sunday, June 1st, 2014
What did I do at 4:15am on Sunday morning? Got up, made coffee and ate PB-honey-banana toast and drove to Palo, Iowa with Maggie, Fred & Kreighton to swim a .5-mile, bike 15.5-miles & then run 3.1-miles. Sounds fun, right???
As it turns out, it really was :)
Maggie always comes up with crazy ideas... and 99% of the time I go along with them :D and in the end, I am always glad that I do. So cheers to you my crazy, inspiring, caring & loving friend... thanks for taking me outside my comfort zone, being my coach and always telling me that I can. I believe you now :)
The race started at 7:30am, so we arrived at 6am to pick up our packets and get situated. It was super early, but I'm really glad we did it... there is a ton of people! Luckily Jeanette offered to keep the little girls, as we were not so sure they'd make it the whole time. I left w/the Peck's at 5am, and then Chris and the girls took off around 6:45.
Before we started
Before we headed to the beach...
Found Chris and the girls on the beach, I was so relieved!
It's an amazing atmosphere... so many people...
Dawn Gerkie was there too!
They release you in waves according to your age group, luckily Maggie & I were in the same group. Here is Maggie.
And here's me
Should have taken a picture of the buoy we were swimming out too! Pretty intense. I started swimming and immediately got bumped and then I realized, oh there's a lot of people out here! But I relaxed myself, kept Maggie in my sight for the most part and just kept swimming! I remember thinking, oh I shouldn't swim too fast, I don't want to feel like I can't swim anymore??? But I was pleased with how I did... I wasn't that much farther behind Maggie, and swam it in 10:44.
Then you run up the hill, strip off your wet suit, put on socks/shoes/tank/helmet and take off biking. The bike was harder than I thought it would be. I guess b/c it takes the longest (finished in 57-minutes & 30-seconds) and you pedal and try to go as fast as you can the whole time :) but that's the point, right? ;) It's just hard to practice that I guess... but we made it.. up 2 big hills! Here we are after the bike...
Hang up your bike, take off your helmet and start running!
All smiles ;) The run wasn't too bad... a little long the first 1.5-miles, but running back it went faster...
We finished the 5K in 26:08... I think that's pretty good after swimming & biking!
You can see Lauren in front :)
And we finished! We did it! Thanks again Maggie... never in a million years did I dream I'd ever run, let alone enter in a sprint triathlon :D
Our super-duper cheering section :) And Jeanette did bring the little girls down at the end, complete with flowers and awesome muffins! I should have taken a picture, and sad that I didn't. It was really fun and I can honestly say I'd like to do another!
