Finished!!!!

I DID IT!!!
Something I thought I would never be able to say, "I finished a triathlon". Did not come in first. Did not come in last.
I finished.

My training for the sprint distance triathlon began 6 months ago in December 2008. I would wake up at 4:30am to be in the pool at 5:00 am and then would run or bike afterward. Thanks to BeginnerTriathlete.com for the training program.

Saturday, May 23rd came and I was nervous. Tiff came along to help me set up. I have never seen a triathlon in person, only on tv, and usually only what is shown on ESPN. We got there about 7:30 am and the race did not start until 10am. I just watched what other people were doing, set up like they did, donned my wetsuit and waited.

After the last wave of Olympic distance racers left the starting area, I "jumped in" the lake (waded into the muddy water) and took a couple practice strokes. As I popped my head up, a guy next to me was laughing because there was a piece of moss stuck on my goggles. The race began with a deep water start which means everyone has to go out the starting buoys and tread water till the yell go. That is when I experienced full-contact swimming. About every third or fourth stroke I would run into another swimmer or get kicked. After about 13 minutes and over 700 yards of swimming, I rounded the last buoy and made for shore. I thought my swim was poor, but it turned out to be about 10 minutes faster than expected.

***Post-edit by Tiffany...out of over 170 swimmers, he came in 31st!!! Go turbo***

After coming out of the water, I had to make it up the muddy bank without falling down. There were a hundred or so people watching as the swimmers came out of the water. Having such a large audience made me a bit nervous! I had to negotiate running/walking on wet concrete, all-the-while doing my best to remove the wetsuit, which is hard enough to do standing still!

The transition area was about 200 yds from the end of the swim. After a couple of minutes I finally got my wetsuit off and had the joyous task of being wet and putting on socks and shoes while standing up. Just call me "Grace" ;) Next time I will bring a bucket to sit on during the transition. After finishing this delicate dance, I hopped on my bike for a 13.4 mile ride.

The ride was pretty flat and I spent most of the time getting passed by the Olympic distance racers on their second lap ride or by other sprint racers. Before the race begins, they take a black permanent marker and write the racer's number on their upper arm, their distance (sprint or Olympic) on one calf and their age on the other calf. So all I had to do was watch the calves of those passing me to know my "competition". I thought I was riding really fast until a 65 year old lady passed me like I was standing still. My brother Brandon and cousin Travis rode along-side me for much of the ride on Travis's motorcycle. They were great at telling jokes and giving me a ton of encouragement.

After riding for about 50 minutes I parked my bike and began the 3.1 mile run (5K). I thought I would fall over. Running after riding that far was a very strange sensation.


The run was harder than I thought it would be, but gratefully my brother, Brandon, helped pace and encourage me for the last 1.5 miles. He was running in his Brazilian Racing Flip Flops. I finished without dying (though I knew deep down I wouldn't).

I did it. I finished!

For anyone who wants to join me, I am racing again Sept. 19th at Daybreak in Utah, http://www.ustrisports.com/daybreak.htm. I so grateful to my wife for her support and encouragement, and to my brother who helped me the last 1.5 miles. Thank you to all the family that were there to cheer me on and for your help with the twins!