Bucket List -Check

Lacombe RV Charity Triathlon

September 6, 2010

~the "calm before the storm of swimmers"~

~The day started with  freezing temps...I scraped ice off my vehicle when I left at 6:30am. But as the day progressed...the sun melted it all away and it actually felt warm.~

The water didn't  though....

{~I feel like this should be a "Where's Waldo" picture:)~}

Here in the lake...probably when half of the distance was behind me- is where I battled my mind. The water was not only cold, but choppy, and anytime I put my head in to do front crawl I became disorientated and felt I was doing circles. I ended up forgetting my "practiced swim stroke" and did whatever I could to get to the end of the 750m.

~Running out of the lake, I felt that was it. Sure I was glad the water was behind me, but I couldn't believe I had to hop on my bike after that mental war.

But I did.~

{(Time-19:50...my lane swim usually is just under 15 minutes for this same distance:( I want to blame it on the lake...

but know I need to train in the lake next year!}

{It felt good to catch my breath in the transition:)}

I thought the run would be the easiest for me, but the bike was awesome.
Yep- there was a head wind almost the entire 20km.....but I felt I could breathe, and think of something other than staying afloat:)
It's funny the things that went through my head during that bike distance.
And I don't think I have ever talked to myself quite so much- out loud.
(Time-46:17)

After parking my bike, I realized I now had to run up this hill....I must have read the course route wrong:) Maybe it was better it happened "spontaneously". I felt like the entire crowd was watching....so I gave it up this hill...only to slow down to a fast walk to catch my breath when I knew no one could see me over the top:)
I DID pick up the pace after that...and the trail was beautiful. I think what made dodging trees and roots a bit easier was the Mountain Trail race the weekend before. I pretended I was in the mountains on a short 5k sprint. It was beautiful...I'd like to go back and enjoy the scenery when I'm not running for a time:)
(Time-31:49)

 THIS does not look like me...my running form looks all out of line. But my legs felt like lead, and climbing the hill to the finish almost got me.

Running to the finish line....

.

And I think here..I was just in disbelief I had done the thing:)

Total time:1:37:54.5

{7th out of 27 female div.}

It WAS an amazing day. Friends came out of no where to be there for me, and Thank You for that! I felt truly blessed to have people there that believed I could do this triathlon- even when I myself never dreamed I could do something like this! It's amazing what people having faith in you can do:)

This triathlon was on my "bucket list" so to speak, but it also made me want to put something else back on the list...maybe an Olympic Distance next July in Calgary.....

we'll see.