Triathlon

Well, let's just say that I finished the race and I wasn't last! (For some reason, for the couple weeks prior to the triathlon, I kept dreaming and picturing myself coming across the finish line dead last by like 2 hours).

My brother, Blaine, and I arrived at Hyrum Reservoir around 6:30 to get set up for the race. As I was getting my bike in place and setting up my transition stuff, I realized that there was only like a total of 60 people doing the Olympic distance and they all looked a whole lot more hard core than me. We're talking expensive bikes, sweet looking wetsuits, they were all definitely looking the part. I wasn't feeling too competitive at this point........just scared of being left in the dust.

The Olympic racers started at 8:00. The reservoir was really high this year so it was a deep water start (meaning that we were up to our chests in the water before they shoot the gun for us to start). After they shot the gun for us to start, I started swimming and it felt like everyone was passing me left and right. In a matter of seconds, my heart started pounding and I was getting really dizzy. I think I was just nervous and having a bit of an anxiety attack. I couldn't get into a groove and all I could think about was that I had a good 30 minutes more to swim and I couldn't catch my breath. So, I decided to go on my back and take a few deep breaths and get a hold of myself for a second. It worked and I was able to get into my zone for the rest of the mile swim.

The transition to bike wasn't bad. The bike route got a little lonely on the second loop. All of the sprint distance people go around once and the Olympic does it twice. I wasn't seeing people, so I starting having my "you are dead last" worries, but I kept on going. By the time I was done, my body was sooooooo ready to be off that bike!

The run didn't as good as I hoped. I was very slow by this point. I found out at the end of the race there were only 4 women in my age division that did the Olympic and only 20 women total. So, as you can imagine, everyone is very spread out over that long distance. I spent most of the race by myself, so there wasn't a bunch of people there pushing you on or helping you feel part of something bigger. Does that make sense?
This is me just after finishing. Cute, huh? I'm not real happy with my time, but oh well. There were even a handful of people that finished after me, so that was good. If (a big fat if) I decide to do an Olympic again, there's some things I would do differently training wise and I would invest in some better equipment.

It was fun having family there to cheer us on. Thanks everyone that came and helped me feel like I'd really accomplished something, even if it was slower than I had hoped for. Thanks to the Grunigs for watching my kiddos while I raced!