Maven Tris Harder

Many months ago I signed up to do an indoor triathlon on February 23. Its amazing how quickly February 23rd rolled around. I've been working out since September and taking the tri training class for a month. I had myself convinced that it was "only" an hour. I work out for 2ish hours on Sunday mornings, an hour, no sweat. Apparently I was delusional. There were the 5 days the previous week that I was pretty much out of commission with the cold/flu/sinus thing and I am sure that contributed to my less than stellar performance.

Esmerelda arrived at our house bright and early on Saturday morning and we were off. We got to the club and scoped things out. Four swim lanes, water not too cold, I can do this I thought, no sweat. Not exactly. The last time I swam prior to Saturday was awful. My sinuses were still acting up and the very act of swimming laps made me nauseous. Saturday morning I felt good. The people around us were friendly. Although I must say that the one man in lycra shorts had Es and I giggling like school girls. I started out on my first lap and the panic set in. I. Can't. Breathe. I labored through every stroke. I turned on my back once just to breathe for a few seconds. I could feel myself sweating. If you've never found yourself hot and sweaty in the pool, its a really bizarre experience. Finally about 8 of the 10 minutes had elapsed and I found my groove and managed to feel like I belonged in the water. All too few laps and it was done. I finished 14 laps.

Next we went to the locker room to try and peel off the swim suit and wiggle into bike shorts. This is no small feat when you are wet. They kept coming to the door of the locker room and giving us a count down of how much time we had left. I got my bike adjusted and started riding. They had the bikes set to a tension level that you couldn't change. A couple minutes in my seat clicks, okay I figure I just didn't have the pin set all the way. Then it clicks again. I had to get some help to fix the seat while I continued to pedal away with people crouched behind me. I managed to get in 6.55 miles with my crotch complaining about my less than stellar shorts the entire time. Es was on the other side of the circle of bikes seriously kicking butt. Her legs were flying--I just checked and she finished second of all the women on the bike and that was just by .04 miles. She SO rocks the bike! From the bike we had 5 minutes to get to the run.

The run. Or in my case run/walk. It was brutal. After the swim and bike my calves knotted up almost immediately after I started running. A few minutes in I accidentally killed the treadmill and had volunteers swarming around me to try and get me started again. It managed to run a bit and walk and bit and get through 20 torturous minutes, 1.;37 miles. It didn't help that I'd left my iPod at home.

I have to say, nothing feels better than finishing. After stretching out a bit I truly felt great. I get why people exercise and compete--the feeling of accomplishment is amazing. It was a good reminder of how much work I still have to do to get me through the other two tris I've signed up for. I didn't finish last, that was one of my other goals. I was third from last in the women and when I went to look at the overall results I finished better than the last several men as well. I'll take it. I did have a moment when I was looking and saw what I thought was the age and the women after me were 72 and 90. Thankfully those were the bib numbers!