I can do hard things!

So this past weekend I went down to St. George to do a triathlon. My first ever. As most know, I've been in a triathlon training class for the past semester. My goal is to do an Olympic distance, so I thought I'd start out with a sprint triathlon.

Mark had class, so he couldn't go down with me. Diane was kind enough to accompany me and be my official cheerleader and photographer. Thanks for your support Di!

First off, I was super emotional this weekend. And so scared to do this race. The triathlon fear had set in. Someone would kick me in the head in the swim. I wouldn't have enough energy to complete it. I would run out of water. All sorts of crazy thoughts came into my head. I was really on the verge of tears for 2 days straight just thinking about it.

The night before the race we went and checked in. Di accidentally ate the volunteers food. I went to go get marked and the guy said "Let's see. Athena heat?" Why, yes. I am an Athena thank you very much (to be in the Athena heat you have to weigh at least 150 pounds). Awesome. Those marks started rubbing off right away.

The morning of the race finally came. I kept thinking I should've trained more. But it's just a sprint triathlon. I can swim a half mile. I can easily bike 12 miles. I can run 3 miles. All together though is another question.

When we got there, the race was already underway and we had no idea where to go. We finally found a spot to put up our bikes and set up our stuff for transitions. After squeezing into our wetsuits we headed down to the water. I had hoped to get a warmup in of a few minutes, but we ran out of time. That's ok. I know how to swim. I've improved so much in the last few months. Turns out open water swimming is a whole different world than lap swimming. You can't see anything! You can't swim normally and still see where you're going. There are people around you everywhere. I accidentally punched a girl in the back of the head. She came up under my hand though. She yelled at me. Oh well. I said sorry and kept swimming. Nothing I could do. She came under me. Cancels out. :)

My confidence seriously dropped during this swim. It was so hard. I'm not sure what made it so difficult to breathe, but I was having an extremely hard time. The water was freezing, which I think was the biggest problem. I'm not sure my wetsuit fit correctly either and I hated having it on! In the end I did a lot of backstroke and a ridiculous freestyle with my head out of water. I just panicked every time I tried to swim normally. Overall I bet I only had my head in the water for no more than 2 minutes of the swim.

Transition 1- I should dry myself off. Actually, who cares. Let's race. Bike shoes on. Tried to ride out of the transition area. Didn't know I wasn't supposed to. Finally off. I can do this. Biking is my favorite. I approached a tent with a sign that said sprint turnaround. Yes! That was easy. I went way faster than I thought. Wait. That's the run turnaround. Talk about disappointment. I still had four times that length to go before I could turn around. There was actually a big hill on the course (so glad Liz drove through the course the night before) and it kicked my butt. There were many people who got off their bikes and walked all the way up it. Not me though. I can do hard things. That really was a hard hill.

Many miles later I was coming in to the transition area again. Looking for Di, my support. It's weird, but that helped SO much. I got a burst of energy after every time I got encouraging words from people I knew. My friend Liz who was right behind me started running the wrong way and I got all confused. We found the right way and I was off. Not very fast though mind you. Running is quite difficult for me.

I could see the tent where I would be able to turn around. Once I get there, I'm almost done. Running, walking, running, almost to the tent. Mile 1. What!?!?!? No. I thought it was the turnaround. I still had 1/2 mile to go...uphill. Shouldn't have been too hard, but it was. Coming back that last mile and a half was such a relief. Almost done with this miserable experience. Why do people like to do this? How am I EVER going to do an Olympic length? My friend Mike from my triathlon class was close to the finish and cheered me on. I was renewed! I came up the last little hill and broke into as much of a sprint as I could handle. There was Di with our new friends cheering me on...I can do it! Finally crossed that Finish line. The pain was over. I could finally rest.

I went and found Di. She gave me a hug and asked how it was. And then the tears came. It was so hard. I did not expect it to be that hard. I had been training now for over 4 months. And it was still that hard. I think the biggest problem was the swim...not only because it was so difficult to breathe but also because it shot my confidence. I felt physically and mentally weak after getting out of the water.

Now that it's Monday and exactly 2 days since I finished the race, I can say that it was an enjoyable experience. I would be happy to do it again. Good thing too because I have already purchased my spot in the Spudman in July. I will have to devote myself to training even more now that I know how hard it really is. Looking forward to it. :)

For anyone considering doing a triathlon, I'd say go for it! It was fun. I enjoyed the training and am so very proud of myself for actually doing it!

Let There Be Light...

...at the end of the tunnel.

We're so close. A few more class projects, a thesis, a grant, and a comprehensive exam and we are free people. Sort of.

Turns out I'm the TA again for the Social Context class which will be in the spring. Executive style. I can handle that.

I told my visiting teachers they could come over at 9 this past Saturday. Why would I ever do that? Because that's the only time I had that week. I totally forgot about them coming over until we heard a knock on the door. No one ever knocks on our door. We live in the basement so all misguided people talk to the people upstairs.

I threw some clothes on and looked around. No time to clean up the remnants of what looks like a tornado. Clothes everywhere. Really everywhere. Shoes- even more out of place. Catch the heel of your pumps in bare feet and you'll learn to put those in the right spot when you take them off your feet. Or at least you should...I apparently never learn.

That was Saturday. Has much changed since then? Not really. We've added a few bowls to the towering pile of dishes in the sink. We're now out of silverware...I used the last fork today. Now we'll start using measuring spoons to eat our cereal...for real. :)

Even though I still have plenty to do, I decided to clean up a little. I looked at my closet- it looked malnourished. Empty. If you've ever been my roommate, you know that my closet is usually stuffed to the brim. I started gathering all the sad, lonely hangers. I gathered at least 20. That means that at least 20 items were strewn about my house in efforts to make reasonable outfits that don't scream I haven't really done laundry in 2 weeks. I should develop an equation for how many clothes I need to put away if I need to hang up 20 things. It usually means 5 pairs of pants to fold, 2 clean laundry baskets full of clothes to fold, 12 pairs of shoes to put in the closet, etc. That would be a really funny paper to write. If only I had a creative writing class. I'm pretty sure my professors would not accept a paper figuring out an equation for the mess in my house instead of a health program plan and evaluation. :) Anyway...

I can now see the floor. That's progress. See, it's about the simple things. A few feet of my bedroom are now visible. I am an accomplished person. I bet even Mr. Darcy would say so. He'd also call me the most handsome woman of his acquaintance (as long as people in his time did not shower all the time). :)