Yeah. That’s right. I did my first triathlon!!!!!!!!!!

Angel’s Triathlon!!! J I was sooo nervous but I did pretty well!!! I met my 2 goals which were to FINISH and to do so in under 2 hours!!! YAY!!!!!!!

So we’ll start on Saturday.

First off, on an un-tri-related note…my cat decided to be a holy terror. I was sitting in the living room having lunch and from my bedroom I hear a massive crash that sounds as though he may have set a bomb off somewhere in my closet. I fully expected to walk in my bedroom and be able to see through to the neighbor’s apartment. Thankfully that was not the case…but somehow…SOMEHOW my cat had managed to JUMP to the very tip top of the closet…a good 8 feet from the ground…and then had proceeded to shove everything off the closet shelf. Everything.

When I got in there, this is the scene I saw.

And then…from above…lept my cat. He jumped down…walked out of the room…then came back in, sniffed the wrecked pile of stuff in the floor as if to say “I heard a crash, I came as quickly as I could. What happened???” and then once he saw that none of his belongings were involved in the crash, he went to rest behind the door.

Yeah. That’s the face of evil. But it’s cute evil.

So after I cleaned up his mess, and cleaned my apartment, and packed, I left for mom’s at around 1pm. Mom and dad then drove me to where the Tri Club was meeting to go to the race. And let me just say, I only freaked out about what I was packing about 3 times…which is good for me.

Oh, and before I left, Tracy wrote some good luck messages on me. One from the dog…and one from him.

We loaded all the gear in to the vans and we were off! And I proceeded to mildly freak out about the reality of the impending race day.

The race was about 2 hours away and we were staying with one of the club member’s parents. They were making dinner for us and had some wonderful snacks ready when we got there. While we waited we chatted and I got to play a pretty decent game of chess! Woot for chess!!!

Dinner was amazing and then we went over bikes and checked the gear. (Read as: Everyone who knew what they were doing checked their gear and bikes. I pestered people with questions and said about 40341 prayers. However the Tri Club is amazing and dealt with my questions VERY well. You guys rock.)

So…then we had a small meeting and then it was time for bed. And…I woke up around 3:30am or 4. Because let’s face it. I worry. A lot. And I freak out on a regular basis…and…there was plenty for me to worry over. Or at least I thought.

By 5:15 when the alarm went off I’d given myself an awesome upset stomach. Thankfully I didn’t have time to freak out too much because we had to be out the door by 5:45. So…I packed and ran!

We got to the race site around 6am and set up our transition areas and get body marked. Since this was my first time one of the other more experienced members helped me set up. Actually almost all of the other members helped me a GREAT deal. They ALL wished me good luck and they were all amazingly supportive. Not once did they make me feel like an outsider in their club/sport nor did they treat me like I had no clue what I was doing…which…well that was the reality of it. I am so grateful to the entire club for being so overwhelmingly helpful, friendly, and supportive.

For this race they ask you who you’re running for, meaning someone that currently has an illness or has passed away due to an illness. I chose 3 people to run my race for; my friend’s cousin who had passed away, Matt; My former art teacher who died of cancer, Sally; and my friend’s mom who is currently fighting cancer, Shirley. The names of these 3 people were written on me in permanent marker and are still on me right now.

So once I had everything set up…and had re-checked it umpteen times I began to go over my game plan. By this time I was trying to figure out what part of the tri to worry about most. I knew I could deal with the run…because I’m a runner. I know how to do that. I’ve got plenty of experience. So that leaves the swim and bike to fret over. Well….I’d swam almost double the distance of this swim earlier in the week so I knew I was capable of it…and I’d tried biking this week and…well…you know that story. So…my logical deduction was that I should worry about the bike. Ok. 15 miles of biking. If I can get through that…I can do this.

Right.

Well the event started at 8:00am. My start time wasn’t until 9:19am. So…I had some extra worry time. But thankfully, MOM APPEARED!!! YAY MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!

They set to work taking pictures and around 8:45 I got in the warm-up pool and did a few laps and before I knew it, it was time for me to line up.

THEN I WAS DOING A TRIATHLON!!!!!!!!!!

Nice pic, mom.

I PASSED SOMEONE SWIMMING!!! Yeeeah me. Go me. I was one of the two people with the VT Tri Club that was doing their first tri. She and I decided that our goal was to pass someone at some point in the race…and I SO TOTALLY DID!!! So did she, so congrats to her!

Anyway, then I was off and running to my first transition. I spent a little extra time here because I wanted to make sure I got everything right and also since I FAIL at drinking water while biking…I made sure and drank before I got on the bike. So…then I was off. And I biked.

And I kinda rocked it.

I did stop twice to drink and take a Gu because everyone had told me hydration was key…so I went with it. And really, the bike part was kinda nice. I enjoyed it. I did go slower than I would have liked but I am still kind of scared of going fast down hills so I stayed within my comfort zone and just enjoyed it. I got a little sore but not too bad. Before I knew it, I was biking back towards the transition area. I only had to get off the bike and push it one time because there was one very evil hill. Actually, there were two evil hills, but the second one had AMAZING crowd support and I’d like to give a huge shoutout to the Angel’s Volunteers…without their cheering I never would have made it. I still can hear their voices in my head. I think they knew how hard that hill was so they positioned themselves there for a reason. I can honestly say I wouldn’t have made it up that hill still biking if it hadn’t been for them. So…if you were volunteering for this race, thank you. You have no idea how much your support meant. You are the ONLY reason I got up that hill.

And then it was time for my second transition. Time to run. Running. I got this. I’ve done this. I know I can do this.

I got part of a Gu…got a lot of water…and ran.

And mom met me and ran with me!!! YAY MOM!!!

But dang. I was exhausted. Just…spent. I ran. And I ran as much as I could. But eventually I had to walk. It was hot, pushing 80 degrees, and I was TIRED.

So I walked some and ran some…and WAS able to finish the race running!!! And actually my run time wasn’t terrible. I’ve had worse run times!!!

Looking back…you know what part I liked the best? The bike.

Remember what I decided to worry about? The bike.

Yeah.

So my times were as follows: Swim – 8:08. T1 – 2:31. Bike – 1:08:23. T2 – 1:19. Run – 35:34.

Total time: 1:55:52. Under 2 hours. I did it.

I TRI’d my best. And I’m now a triathlete. And the USAT sticker is now proudly on my car.

And when I got home from the tri, there was a surprise in my freezer. The worlds most amazing boyfriend left ice cream cupcakes and some…instructions for how to arrange them depending on if I finished or not (He was exposed to my excessive worry…I think I damaged him) which was awesome. He had to leave for a business trip so that’s why he wasn’t there to support me.

And I’m already picking out my next triathlon. I’ve found some awesome ones in Tennessee later this summer… J

And Shoutouts:

Heather: For being the best trainer ever. For always making me feel better. For picking me up when I fall. For pushing me. For telling me I could do this. For never giving up on me. For being a BAMF. Thanks.

Jan: Thanks for getting me through the half. And thanks for checking in to see if I’m doing ok. J Your support means a lot and I promise to continue to keep you updated about my progress!!! MCM is coming up and I plan to bug you plenty about it!!!! I can’t wait to start back with TNT again soon!!!!

Dad: Thanks for driving. And you’re a great pack mule. LOVE YOU!!!!