Another Milestone

Well, I did it! I successfully completed my first open water sprint triathlon in Lake Mills, Wisconsin! That was a big step in this journey!  Up until that point, I had never done an open water triathlon and had never swam in a lake in a wetsuit.  I felt ready!  I wasn't even nervous on race day, which was awesome. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that my mindset going into it was to finish.  I had no worries about my time, my place, nothing! Just wanted to get one under my belt.  My original plan was to start in the back of the pack and way off to the side.  That way I wouldn't get stampeded by better swimmers.  I hear panicking is a big issue with new wetsuit open water swimmers.  I panicked only a little.  The competitive part of me took over as we started and I came out way to fast.  I found myself breathing really hard about 75 yards in and for a moment got a little wigged out. But, luckily I have an amazing friend and trainer who has been working hard with me to control my breathing.  When I started to get worried and panicky, I just repeated to myself what he says to me when he's pushed me past my limits and I'm having a hard time catching my breath.  "Slow down your breathing".  That really helped and by the time I rounded the first corner at 100 yards I was fine!  Swimming breaststroke with a wet suit takes a lot more work in my opinion.  I would just rather swim without one, but the chances of Lake Michigan being warm enough on race day is slim to none.  According to my dad, it's about 40 degrees right now.....

The biking went really really well.  I'm used to climbing huge hills in Lancaster.  I think that really prepared me well.  I finished the biking portion in 1:03, which I felt was probably on the slow end, but my legs felt great when I was done.  The run was probably the hardest part, which was really surprising because it was only 3.1 miles.  My legs didn't feel heavy.  I just felt tired.  I had a hard time catching my breath.  I felt like I was crawling, but actually finished in 28 minutes, which was great because my training runs have been much slower than that due to my bum hamstring.  

I ended up finishing in about 1 hour and 50 minutes.  That's 9 minutes faster than the last pool triathlon I did a few years back.  It's not fast by any means and I was only 16th in my age group, but thought at the end of the day, I did what I set out to do.  Finish.  The hard part was the thought after I was done that I have to go distances 4 times that on July 19th.  It's really overwhelming to think about it.  But I know I have been working hard with my training to make myself physically strong and my trainer has been working hard with me to make me mentally tough.  As long as I finish in under 8 1/2 hours, I will consider this a success.  I know I'm not fast and that's ok.  

I know that I've probably said this more often than not, but I have such an amazing support system.  Deanna, the one pictured above competed in her first open water tri with me.  It was way out of her comfort zone, but she did it to support me.  Recently she went on a 25 mile bike ride with me on her hybrid bike.  Not fun.  My friend Megan is going to go on some long rides with me as well.  My friend Stacey jumped in the pool and swam 1500 yards with me yesterday.  And those friends that aren't able to do these training things with me give me encouraging words all the time.  They don't even realize how much that keeps me going.  I know that my kids are watching what I'm doing and I'm hoping it encourages them to try something big one day.  

I leave for Disney on Monday.  I'm so excited to finally get to experience this with my family. Because I won't have the ability to get all my training in (and that really worries me) I've been working really hard this week to get in as many swims, bikes and runs as I can. When I get home, my 70.3 will be less than a month away.  But, as worried as I am, I'm trying to remind myself that this trip is an opportunity to step away from everything and just enjoy watching my boys as they experience this trip.  I'm so lucky to have two healthy, happy boys and the training can wait for a week.  You never know how that can change in a heartbeat. I'm going to enjoy every second with them and Shane and make memories to last a lifetime. When I return I will continue to put in the miles and on that day, I'll have an angel by my side pushing me to the finish line.  Several of my friends are planning to make the trip down to Racine to cheer me on and their energy will help as well.  

Below are a few more pictures from my first ever open water tri.