My Triathlon

In June, I participated in my first triathlon.  It consisted of a half-mile swim, a 12 mile bike, and a 5K run.  Since I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a child and I don't swim on any regular basis, I don't really know why I thought this would be a good idea. Some girls in my Sunday school class encouraged me to do it with them and ever since I turned 30 years old, I have wanted to push myself to do new things and try new things and not fall into that rut of just being a mom and sort of letting myself go.  So, I borrowed my cousin's bike and started swimming laps and the gym and by June, I felt like I was ready to go. 

The swim went just fine.  I wasn't sure how I would handle the open water swim, but it ended up not being a big deal at all.  I swam the half-mile in 22 minutes. 

Next was the biking part.  This is where I ran into trouble.  I had my first flat tire as I passed the start line.  Luckily, a bike shop had a big tent in the transition area and I was able to hand my bike over the fence for them to replace the tire.  They said my back tire didn't look very good either and sure enough about 200 yards into the race, my other tire popped as well.  A bike angel helped me put a new tube on the bike and a patch on the hole in the tire and I rode it back to the start, handed it over the fence again to the bike shop people and they replaced that tire as well.  The tires were old and I guess when I had taken it it for a tune-up, the bike shop pumped up the tires too much and they just couldn't handle it.  I was not happy with the bike shop that I had taken it to, but at least my troubles were all at the beginning of the bike route and were easily fixed.  It did add quite a bit of time to my bike leg though.  I finished that leg in 1 hour and 10 minutes.

The last leg was the run.  It was in the grass and up and down hills so it was definitely the hardest leg.  I promised myself that I wouldn't walk and I didn't. There were times that I was doing a pretty darn slow jog, but it was not a walk.  I finished that leg in 33 minutes. Overall, it was a great experience and I would like to do it again soon.