I am a triathlete!

So, lets just say that when you're me, waking up at 4 am sucks. It sucks more than working until 4 am ... and that's saying alot. Irregardless, the alarm went off at 4 am and while getting up sucked, getting out of the bed in the Extended Stay America and realizing that we did not have full body rashes was a relief!

Triathlon friend and I made our way to the race sight and set up our transition area. I was ti-RED. Taking into account the tossing and turning, I estimated that I had gotten a total of 7 hours of sleep in the two nights prior to the race. I wanted to take some time to rest, but it had rained a lot in the days leading up to the race and the mosquitoes were brutal. Doubting that the mosquitoes could bite me through the wetsuit I decided to forego the rest and begin the wetsuit shimmy ... initially it did not go well. Granted I was tired, but I couldn't figure out why I was having such difficulty. Um, until I realized that I was trying to put my wetsuit on backwards. Yeah, I'm smart!

Wetsuit off, turned around and on again, the thought of walking down to the water to warmup was way more than I could handle, so I decided to sit down and gather some energy to get me through the race ... I think I took a nap with my eyes open and when it was time to give Triathlon Friend's Husband my camera and head down to the water I felt a bit less like I was going to die.

We watched the age groupers head into the water (note to self: next time sign up as an age grouper, they get an earlier start!) and prepared to head in ourselves. Again, the "rah rah we are awesome" wasn't really my style, I did my best to tune it out and before long I was in the water and we were off ...

the swim - 13:56

... um, jumping in to swim almost 1/2 a mile with no warmup is not fun. My heart rate soared, I got kicked in the face, I found a groove, got kicked in the face, let some people pass, found another groove, got kicked in the face and 3/4 of the way in decided to breast stroke and forego any more face kicks. The whole swim, all I could think of was that I was tired, had no energy, was exhausted ... you get the picture. It was so bad that I decided if Triathlon Friend was already out of transition, I was going to DNF and I NEVER DNF ... I have run half marathons with bleeding blisters, screaming IT Bands and the like ... but I always finish.

t1 - 5:05

Triathlon Friend's bike was still there and realizing that my swim wasn't as awful as I thought gave me hope. Shimmied out of the wetsuit, decided to forego socks, threw on my sneakers and bike helmet, grabbed the bike and I was off ... passing Triathlon Friend on the way I told her that I'd give her a shout out when she passed me on the bike ...

the bike - 44:49

It was fun ... but there are a lot of FAST bike riders out there. Gotta work on this and practicing riding in a higher gear. Triathlon Friend passed me about 3 miles in and after that I just sort of peddled away ... shouted out to the (many, many) people passing me, thought about all the work I had to do when I got home and was HAPPY to be off the bike ...

t2 - 1:58

Couldn't re-rack the bike so propped it up, hoped for the best and I was off ...

the run - 31:32

Plodded along, knew it might take awhile but I would run the whole thing. A few ITB twitches towards the end so took a quick stretch break. Started noticing some stinging in my left heel and worried that I was getting a blister but still had enough (maybe too much?) left to sprint to the finish ...

And, I was a triathlete (with a very gross, bleeding blister, note #2 to self: wear socks!).

Would I do it again? Absolutely ... in fact, I might participate in one next weekend (more on that later).

Was it the coolest thing ever? Not by a long shot ... but maybe I was tired and cranky. I know, I know, hard to believe ...