Our first triathlon

The "our" is me and Dallin! I asked Dallin a couple of weeks ago if he would like to take part in the kids' triathlon and he has been looking forward to it ever since. He tells everyone that he runs into that he is doing a triathlon. I will admit watching him was the highlight of the day! He did the race with 2 of the boys of the moms that I trained with! The 3 boys stuck together which was very cool! Emily was really cute and wanted to be a part of it also.

I have been training for 8 weeks for this race. I have done many running races, so I was surprised by how nervous I was getting. It just all seemed so unknown and complicated to me. First of all, I had to lose my fear of the bike. :-) (Oh yeah, I also had to buy a bike!) Then I had to start swimming laps. I also had to figure out what to wear that would go from the water to the bike to the run! So many details! The best part was that I had 4 good friends going through the process with me. We met up for many of the training days so I think we kept each other motivated. We even were able to practice swimming in a lake this past week.

So, to add to my craziness, the night before when I was supposed to be getting good rest, I was doing this with my cute family:
We had such a great time at Oaks Park, but we got home about 10:15. I know Jeff was not looking forward to getting up early with the kids. Thanks for being a good sport babe!

*Warning- long race report! You can skip to the bottom for the results!*

I woke up at 5am ready to go because I wasn't really sleeping anyway! I met up with my friends at 5:45 and we were on our way!

It was fun setting up my gear in the transition area. I tried to talk to the women next to me, I figured we would run into each other during the race, but I did not feel the love! From that point on, the race felt kind of lonely to me.

We started in the water and the first buoy looked so far away! When the gun went off, I thought, what am I doing? When I finally hit the first buoy I felt a little bit better. As I ran out of the water I saw my cute family and that motivated me to run faster to get my bike. :-)

I had no idea how long it had taken me, but later found out it was 20 minutes. I tried to get my socks and shoes on as fast as I could, grabbed my helmet and bike and took off. The bike route was along the Columbia River and beautiful! But again, it was somewhat lonely. Just me and my bike. I said good job to the bikers that flew past me. They are so fast! I enjoyed the bike ride and was able to go faster than on my normal bike rides, which I was happy about.

Now I was ready for my favorite part- the run! I took my helmet off and ran out of the transition area. It was only later that I realized I forgot to throw on my cute skirt. So, I ran in just the spandex. Oh well! I thought I was going the wrong way, but another runner reassured me I wasn't. I enjoyed the running route around the lake, but my legs were trashed! I kept wanting to pick up the speed, but my legs wouldn't budge any faster! I passed a few of the people who had passed me on the bike, so that was fun! I actually thought it was motivating to see the age numbers on the other runners' legs.

*Overall results: 20 minute swim(1/2 mile), 3 1/2 minute transition, 43 minute bike ride (12 miles), 1:51 transition, 25:48 run (5k). So, my total was 1:34! My goal was to finish in about 1:45, so I was very happy with my finish! I was 90th overall (out of 330), I was 20th in my age group (out of 64). My favorite stat was that I was in 148th place after the bike, and ended in 90th place after the run! I placed 34th out of 330 in the run!
It was a great experience, but I am not convinced yet to switch to the triathlon. I am still a true Marathon Mommy at heart. My next plan is to train with Jeff for a 10k in September. I am looking forward to just running again, with maybe a swim or bike thrown in every once in a while. The triathlon was a little too lonely for me, but I am glad I did it.

The hardest part of the race was seeing my amazing friend, running partner, and triathlete training partner, Molly, after the race. She was in tears and looked so frustrated. She had gotten a flat tire during the bike ride and was not able to finish her race. I was so disappointed for her because I definitely know what it feels like to not finish a race. It was of course not her fault, but it was difficult to put all that training in and not see the results. She was the one who kept encouraging me when I was getting nervous for this race. I really hope she will try another one and I will come cheer her on!! Love ya, Molly! You can make it through anything with good friends! This pic has me, Stephanie, Marnie and Molly. (We are missing Mindy in this pic because she had already left for Utah with her family!) Thanks ladies! I had an awesome time training with you. What's next?!