Too long, already!

As Finn and his sister were engaging in a pyjamed romp post-bath last night, I overheard him say these exact words:

"Get your butt out of my face! Hey Meg, enough with the butt already!"

Anybody else think we've been here too long, already?

Some details for the interested......

A Sprint distance Triathlon is the shortest of the recognised events.

It involves the three disciplines of swimming, biking and running in that order.

The time taken to change kit in between disciplines is included in your total time taken.

These are called Transitions, abbreviated to T1 and T2.

My race was made up of: 800 metre (1/2 mile) open water swim  22.5 kms (14 miles) bike, and a 5 km (3.1 mile) run.

My timings in minutes and seconds were:

Swim: 15:32
T1: 01:54

Bike: 47:56
T2: 01:05

Run: 25:35

Total: 1:32:02

TRI-tastic, baby!

 

I am a Tri-athlete.


I can say that now. I completed a sprint distance triathlon on September 3rd 2011. And to my surprise, very little had changed with the world when I got up on Sunday morning. The very fact that the world was still turning was surprise enough for me. I had been so focused on the race that I hadn't imagined any time after. So it was quite a relief really, the sun coming up and all.


And now I can't wait until next year!


BRING IT ON!


Needless to point out, I loved it! Every minute of it. Even those minutes when my legs hurt so much in the run that I could hardly breathe. It was awesome. And having my support crew on hand to cheer me through each transition and over the finish line made it even more awesome. Perfect, in fact.

Before the race was a different story. For a couple of weeks I had been having serious trouble NOT thinking about the TRI. Anxiety dreams abounded and I was convinced a flat tyre was going to ruin my chances of finishing. Just thinking about swimming in the lake made me breathless with fear and my speedwork got worse and worse. I tweaked my Achilles tendon so had to stop running completely for a crucial week.

But, I tried to remind myself on Saturday morning, I had been working towards the race for a long time. Yup, I started swimming, biking and running in January. And I had been amazed at how disastrously unfit I was. I could barely swim a length of the pool (all 25 metres of it) and biking 14 miles was well beyond reach. So I worked hard for what seemed like a very long time. When I got lost as to how to proceed I bought a book with a training plan and followed it religiously, training 6 mornings a week, plus a session with my personal trainer. All my training was done before the children got up until I reached a point when I realised that my being ready for bed by 11.00am every day was compromising our lives a little too much. Thank goodness for Nana and Pops, and Grandma and Grandpa, our house guests over the summer who were able to watch the children for me while I trained so I could give up some early morning starts. And a huge thank you to my Dad who traipsed down to the lake with me at 6.30am a couple of mornings a week to watch me swim up and down and finally get used to swimming in the lake, in a wetsuit, in some serious chop. I learned how to ride my new bike more effectively (still some work to do there though...) and started to remember what it feels like to run, struggle free.

So, on race day, I had no reason to panic. I told myself that I had to make this count, that this was the very last time I would HAVE to do any of the three triathlon disciplines. If that was what I wanted. If I didn't get bitten by the bug at least I would be able to say I finished a race and tried my hardest.

I went out full of trepidation but managed to come back with a smile. I'd had no idea how I was doing until I crossed the finish line and saw the clock: 1 hour 38 minutes 02 seconds. Wow, I thought, amazing, I finished quicker than I could ever have imagined. Well done!

But........

The swim started out in waves, 3 minutes apart and I was in wave 3 so that means.......an adjusted finish time of 1 hour 32 minutes 02 seconds. The 5th fastest finisher in my age group. Oh my.

So, kids, apologies in advance, but come January, Mummy might just start heading for the pool in the wee small hours all over again......