Triathlon

Yesterday morning my good friend, Kiersten, and I participated in the 2010 YMCA Triathlon.  Our team name was Morning Meeting ... because we have our "meetings" in the mornings at the Y and then go our own ways.  :)  


Kiersten swam the 1/4 mile and I ran the 3.1 miles.  Our biker sprained her ankle a couple weeks ago and we were unable to find a replacement, so we just went without a biker.  Jamie, the woman in charge of the triathlon, said we could still be a team, but we wouldn't be eligible for any prizes.  We weren't doing this for prizes anyway, so we were both okay with that.


The race started at 7:45 a.m. at Moraine State Park's North Shore.  Now I'm not usually even awake that early (I usually get up around 8:00), so that seemed very early for this night owl.  :)  But I got up at 6:00, threw on my clothes, ate a quick breakfast, brushed my teeth, and left.  The park is about 30 minutes from my home.  Keira decided the night before that she wanted to go with me, and surprisingly she was up when I got up and ready to go when I was.  So off we went!


There were oodles of people unloading their bikes when we got there.  I called Kiersten to see where she was.  Thankfully we found her quite easily.  She was pumped!  She couldn't wait to get in the water and warm up.


We were so thankful that the thunderstorms that rolled through here Friday afternoon/evening had cooled everything down.  I was so hot last week!!!  But Saturday morning was simply beautiful!  A great day for a triathlon!


We watched Kiersten swim.  Well, we couldn't actually see her, but we cheered her on anyway.  She did awesome!  A 1/4 mile swim is longer than you might think!  


Once she was done swimming, she rung the water out of the ankle bracelet that contained our race chip, and I strapped it on.  I was told I could start running pretty much whenever I wanted since we didn't have a biker to wait for.  So I waited until some of the triathletes returned on their bikes and started running and I took off.


Whew!  It was hard!  Shortly after the start line, I had to run uphill.  Ugh!  But once I got going, I was doing pretty well.  Except all the young guys kept blowing past me making me feel like I was running really slow.  I didn't feel like I was though.  I walked a little after passing the 1 mile marker, we turned around at 1.5 miles, and I walked a couple more times on the way back.  My shoe came untied twice!  I double-knotted it the second time.  :)


I crossed the finish line and the time on my watch said 30:30!  I ran 3.1 miles in 30 minutes!  That means I was running faster than 6 mph (my treadmill speed) because I had walked a few times!


Keira and Keirsten both missed me crossing the finish line because they thought the finish line was where the starting line was.  Oops!  No biggie.  Keira took a picture of me but it is blurry.  :(  Hopefully the ones Aaron, Kiersten's husband, took turn out better.  :)


We stayed for the awards ceremony, even though we knew we weren't eligible.  It was fun cheering for everyone else.  Lou, who works at the Y and has been talking to us about the triathlon, won first place in his age group (60-64 I think).


It was amazing to see so many healthy bodies!  Young, old, skinny, not so skinny.  All different shapes and sizes, but all doing something wonderful for themselves.  


Our team got "honorable mention" at the end when Jamie was announcing the team winners.  It turned out that there were only 3 teams entered.  Everyone else was individual.  So if we had a biker, we could have at least gotten 3rd place.  :)  But Jamie said she needed to recognize the Morning Meeting team because we showed up and did our part even though we were missing a person.


And, hey, we got a t-shirt!  Proof that we participated in a triathlon.  Looking forward to doing it again next year ... WITH a biker!


:)

Tweet