Triathlon reflection

I can't believe I haven't blogged this yet! It was the focus of my summer. It consumed most of my mental thoughts and absorbed most of my physical energy..... I COMPLETED my first triathlon (mini) on August 14th here in our town. I signed up back in June and started my training process with one of the best training partners (my neighbor). We spent 2 months, getting up with the birds to run, bruising our bottoms from biking so much, and drying out our hair from all the chlorine in the pool. I probably complained every step of the way, but when the triathlon day actually came, I enjoyed myself, I would even say it was fun! I made some new friends throughout this training journey and strengthened other frienships. Plus, I learned a lot about myself and my ability to mentally 'push-through' something.

When we originally registered, it was all about finishing without dying! But somewhere along the way as the training went on, I watched my practice times improve. I started to believe that, not only could I do it, I could do it well. My first goal was to just finish before the sun went down, then I decided 2 hours seemed appropriate, then I changed it to under 1 hour 45 mins. So I was pleasantly surprised with my final triathlon time being- 1:32:10! That was way more than I had hoped for!

As fall begins to roll in, next summer seems like forever away, and if you asked me today if I will do it again, I would say yes! However, the reality is- it was hard to get in shape for something like that, and through the LONG, cold, unmotivated winter months, I am sure I will lose all the "in shape" I have gained. And I will have talked myself out of doing it again more times than I can count. So it is my hope that I will look back at this blog entry and remember all the good and fun times I had, rather than all the hard work ahead of me.