Call Me Jenni The Triathlete!

Last Saturday (June 18th), I completed my first ever triathlon. I say first ever, because I do believe I will do another one. I trained and trained and trained. That's right, it was a lot of training, sure I could have trained more, especially in the last month, but I didn't. Next year. Right?

I got talked into the triathlon a while back by Darla. And apparently I am very susceptible to peer pressure when it comes to sporty things. I think it is because I am not at all sporty or athletic, but I like to have goals, and like to have something to work towards, so I agreed.

Originally, we had talked about Daybreak Triathlon, but after much deliberation, we decided that the half mile open water swim was more than we wanted to take on. A half mile is a LONG swim and the open water meant finding a wet suit, due to the temperature. And since I have a hard time finding clothes that fit, I figured finding a wet suit was going to be a nightmare. When Darla found the Shark Attack Tri, I was stoked. It was only a 300 yd swim IN A POOL! 11.5 mile bike and a 5k. It felt a lot more doable. I had found a training guide an printed up a calendar and started on my way. It was really hard, I don't think I ever followed a full week. But I did pretty good. The weather this spring was great for running, but not for biking and since I don't do well on stationary bikes (too boring) I didn't bike as much as a should have, but oh well. Swimming was also another challenge. Sure, I go to the pool every year, but swimming laps is a whole different beast. So I signed up for an adult swim class (two sessions actually) with a friend and learned to improve my technique. It was actually a really fun class, and I miss it so I think I will do it again. Plus, I went out to swim with Darla in Herriman a couple of times and the Masters swim coach (i.e. adult swim team coach) helped us some more. She was so awesome and helpful, that I am jealous she is not at my pool!

At about a month out, I was feeling really confident and good and then I got a cold from hell. It knocked me on my butt BIG time! And then turned into a sinus infection. So that ate two weeks of training. I did swim once during that time (I think that was the day my cold was turning into a sinus infection, because I felt okay). And when I felt better I did go on a long run (4.3 miles) and did really well. So I while I would have liked to work out a little more in the past month, I figured that if I could run 4.3 miles, I could do the tri. And then the flooding started...

Usually our runoff season is done by mid-June, but not this year. And because I know the creeks really well (or at least so they say) I actually worked nights Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before the race. It was fun being on flood patrol, though it did get boring at times, but that is a good thing. Needless to say, the week before the race, I didn't get a lot of sleep, ate like crap and got a little stressed. But Friday night, I was actually asleep by 10, so I got 7 hours of sleep before the race.

The race started at 7a, which meant I was up at 5a. And from the before picture below, you can see I was still super tired. I am not a morning person, but on days that I have stuff early, I seem to do ok, even if I do look like crap.

The first picture is Darla and me, pre-race. We both look SUPER excited.

And here I am with all my stuff, you can't see the stuff on the ground, but I had two pairs of shoes (running and biking), a camelbak, sunscreen, towel, socks and random snacks.
Because the race was in a pool, it was a staggered start. Which meant we had to line up according to what we thought we could swim in, I had timed myself the Monday before and I was at 11'45", so SLOW. But I had taken a lot of breaks and was really sore, so I decided to stand in the 11' line. The frustrating part was overhearing all the people in the faster times saying that they thought they could finish in that time. Ugh... But I was happy to be where I was, it meant the pool was not really crowded and I got to watch a lot of people swim. And WOW some people are BAD swimmers. Granted, I did the back stroke for most of my swim, but when I did freestyle, my head was at least in the water!

The swim took me 8 minutes to complete. The official time says 10 something, but that was because the transition mat was out a ways from the pool and I walked over to it.

The biking was SO much harder than I expected. I knew the course had a couple of hills in it, but I was not expecting HILLS! About two miles from the turn around a hill started and it SUCKED! It was so bad that when the kid in front of me didn't move over in time for me to pass, I lost momentum and ended up being passed by Darla and her sister-in-law (curses!). Which ended up being fine, because on one stretch of the hill when my biking speed had dropped to about 4mph, I got off and walked to the top of that stretch before getting back on. And another example of how bad the hill was, at the turn around I didn't pedal for probably 1.5 miles and rode my brakes and STILL hit 29mph! That is INSANE!! Next year, I will definitely ride more hills. I was also worried about my knee, as it had started hurting when I did the Salt Lake Century and had been hurting all week, so I knew if I wanted to be able to walk, much less run, I knew that I couldn't push the bike very much, so it took 55 minutes. But still, I vow I will do better next year.

Finally, it was the 5k. I got off my bike, put on my running shoes and I was off. Except, I was so not feeling like running. My legs were fine, I wasn't sore, but without music or a dog, I just can't run. That is definitely something I need to work on, but I LOVE running with my dog, she is an awesome partner/motivator! After I actually felt like I could have gone on a run with Nova, but I went to brunch with my Dad instead. The 5k took ~40 minutes, which for walking most of it is really good. It was such a beautiful day and I love walking by the river. It really was fun, plus I love cheering for people. It makes me happy when people are happy and you can tell they are excited to be there. So I cheered for everyone I saw.

Another good thing of the day, was that my dad came out to support me. It meant so much to me that he was willing to wake up at the crack of dawn to sit around and cheer me on for the minutes that he saw me. He was an AWESOME cheerleader and actually got random strangers to also cheer for me. And they got so into it, that they cheered me on every time they saw me, even if he wasn't there. It was very sweet. Plus, free breakfast is always nice! Thanks Dad! You made race day even better!!

Here is my after picture. I don't think I look too bad for exercising for 1:51'38". Granted, I had to wait around forever for them to fix my time (they finally just wrote down what my watch said and changed it) so I am sure I looked worse, before I finally made it to my phone to take a pic.

It really was fun, and I will do it again next year. It is amazing what a lazy girl can accomplish! And here's hoping the half marathon I signed up for in October is as fun!

On another note, I have an official weigh-in next week. I don't think I will make it. I have been at the same weight all month, which is awesome, except it is 4 pounds above what I need it to be! I guess I'll have to be extra good with my food for the next bit and start working out again!