Me with the sign our neighbors made for me. |
To prepare for the ½ mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run I signed up for a training program called Iron Chicks. |
Because I couldn’t swim at the beginning of the training program, I also took private swim lessons. |
The crowd before the swim. |
Note the different colored caps for the different starting waves. |
Waiting for the swim in Decker Lake to begin—you can see the swim start sign in the background. |
Only a few minutes until the start of the ½ mile open water swim. |
You would think I would be nervous since I only started to learn to swim 3 months before this picture was taken, but I was nice and calm—probably in shock!!!! |
Time to get in the water. |
The boat ramp was very slippery, so they had volunteers to help us in and keep us from slipping. |
In the water and ready to go. I’m the one in the purple cap! Really, I’m in the center of the picture, with the white goggle straps, and thin black swimsuit straps. |
Waiting for the start signal. You can see Sally Ewards—national Danskin spokeswoman--with a megaphone on the dock giving a pep talk. |
|
And they’re off. Okay, I’m at the back of the group and haven’t started yet, but that was my plan. As a slower swimmer, I wanted to start at the back of my group so I had less chance of getting kicked or run over. |
|
|
Now you see the yellow caps of the group that went out after mine. My group is further out—you can just make out our heads above the water. |
The swim finish. |
If you look closely at the water, you can see the waves that the wind out of the north was starting to kick up. They made the swim back in to shore more challenging for me because I hadn’t done any swimming in waves. |
The look of contentment and relief that the swim is over. |
The walk up the grassy slope to the transition area where our bikes are waiting. |
|
|
T1 (Transition 1) If you look closely you can see me pulling on my shorts, socks, and shoes before hopping on my bike. |
|
Walking my bike out to the start of the bike course. |
For safety, you have to walk your bike past a designated point before you stop to hop on. |
|
And I’m off on the 12 mile very hilly bike course around Walter E. Long park. |
The bike finish. It was a tough ride. Not only did we have the hills, but we had the strong wind from the north to deal with too. |
T2 (Transition 2) I’m far away, but in the center of the picture. |
I needed to put my bike back in the same place and then get started on the 3 mile run. |
The beginning of the run. I look distracted because the watch I was keeping my times on stopped. A chip on our ankle also timed us when we crossed certain points on the course, but I had planned on knowing my time as soon as I finished. |
I walked the first part of the run course so my legs could adjust from being on the bike. Biking and running use completely different muscles, so when you try to run after you bike, your legs feel like they’re filled with lead. |
I only planned on running 3 minutes out of every 5 because I was still rehabing shin splints and tendonitis. |
|
This is about a mile into the run. |
I fell into step with Cynthia (on my left) and we picked up Nicole (on my right) a few minutes later. |
|
I had never met either of these girls before, but it was wonderful to have someone to visit with and pass the time! |
|
|
As you may have deduced, I ran much more than I had planned. |
I only walked a little bit at the beginning and at two water stops on the course. |
This picture was NOT posed! We were simply in sync! |
|
The final steps to the finish! I’m waving at my fellow Iron Chicks and our coaches who were there to cheer us home! |
Now to the serious business of finishing this race! |
|
Heather and me. We met in the Iron Chicks program and plan to do another triathlon together in September! She’s much faster than I am, but we can still meet at the finish line! |
Heather, Donna, and me. Donna was one of the other good friends I made in the Iron Chicks program. Thanks to Iron Chick’s wonderful, supportive coaches, I trained hard and finished the race with a smile! |
