Triathlon

Today was the day, my first full Olympic length triathlon!

To start off, we swam 1 mile in the Snake River. It wasn't bad at all, the river has a current that gives you an extra boost, the water was pretty warm, and the weather was perfect, but I won't be surprised if I get giardia. I swallowed SO much of that water [unintentionally, of course]. I wore a wetsuit, which has pros and cons. Good: they make you float. Bad: they are so tight, I feel claustrophobic, which makes me panic, which [almost] causes me to drown. It took me like 30 minutes or something to finish the swim. I'm not even mad.

{That's me in the water...alone...oops, got a little ahead of myself haha!}

Next came the 26 mile bike ride. I thought that this was the area that I was most prepared for. WRONG! This was the hardest part for me. My legs were SO dang tired by the end. My mom stayed with me for the whole ride, she kept me going, who knows how long it would have taken without her pushing me. Side story: I guess there was a huge group of 30 riders who all crashed [dominoes anyone?]. Anyway, I think I finished the bike in like an hour and a half. I could be way wrong on that though.

{Sorry, no bike pics}

To finish it all off, we had the 6 mile run. By this point I was EXHAUSTED, so it was more of a walk/run. I totally almost quit right at the beginning because I twisted my ankle about half a mile into it, I started to cry (it was a mixture of everything: the pain, the exhaustion, the fact that I still had 6 miles on foot, and the thought of quitting). Then suddenly, I just got over it and kept going. This also took me about an hour and a half. It was definitely a -walk for a few minutes and run for a few minutes- thing I had going on, which was totally fine with me.

It was a huge relief crossing the finish line. The first thing I saw was my sweet husband cheering for me, aww it doesn't get much better than that. Chris wants to do this same triathlon either next year or after he graduates...I believe I will be HIS cheerleader for that one, I think I'm going to retire from the sport. I'm glad I did it, but even more glad that it's over!