I'm a Triathlete!

"Congratulations, you're a triathlete!," people said as I ran into the finish line. I had to think about it for a few seconds because this isn't even the event I'm training for. Yeah, I am a triathlete. Sweet!

It was probably this nonchalant attitude that probably helped me from getting too nervous about my first triathlon. I tried to get some sleep last night and went to bed around 10. I kept waking up every few hours and around 1:30, I got out of bed to get ready. Without my glasses on, I could have sworn it said 4:30. Went back to bed and at 4:30 in the morning I got up again.

With all my gear in my car and some breakfast in my belly, I was on my way by 5:30. Once I got to Hansen Dam, I ran into Nancy. A few more cars down, we ran into Irene and James. Our cadre headed to the transition area with all our gear. I found my wave group based on age and set up my bike and shoes.

From this point, I think I'll consider myself super lucky. Like the guy at a TED conference said, people usually only focus on the things that go wrong in their day instead of everything that goes right. While I'll try to focus on all the things that went right. As I was setting up my transition area, my neighbor on my left gave me plenty of room.

Swim start in the calm, murky Hansen Dam reservoir

Right before the race, I took a long practice swim and that got me acclimated to the water. Even though I swam the long way around the buoys that gave me a ton of extra yardage, as I was getting out of the water, I was struggling with the zipper of my wet suit and some kind racer came by and in what seemed like one motion, opened the velcro and unzipped the back of my suit.

Struggling to get out of my wet suit as I transition into the cycling

As I got my cycling gear on, my neighbor said , "Don't you just love this?" A little premature, we're still racing. I had a pretty strong ride and due to some well placed volunteers I was able to slow down in time to make a tight right turn.

Shadow of personal photographer in the bottom right

I had a super fast transition into the run and although I was running at a respectable 9 minute mile pace, I felt like everyone was passing me. I saw my teammate Sheila in the spectators cheering. After running what seemed like 4-5 miles instead of 3. There was a killer hill and I though I was complete out but I heard someone cheer the end is right behind that banner and I dug deep and sprinted in for the finish.

My sprint into the finish line

The coach and all my teammates congratulated me and we stood around and waited for other teammates to complete the race.

Official triathlete

This might be a little premature, but I'd like to quickly recap some things that have gotten my team and I to this point. I think it's incredible how hard everyone is working out. I've seen some amazing improvements in the pool from not knowing how to swim to being able to swim continuously for almost an hour. Everyone making time in their lives to make sure they stay with the workout schedules. Like working out at 5 in the morning. Making time for workouts in the midst of church, family and work. Working out even on vacations and staying strong, commit and brave in the face of family loss.

We're all working hard and improving, together.

Special thanks to James for attending. He woke up at 7 AM and came out to support us and take pictures.

TNT Kickoff

I got to kickoff late, because as I was cutting and pasting the address, I missed the first digit of the street number and I was off by ten blocks. Luckily, some kind strangers were able to point me in the right direction.

At the kickoff, there were a lot of booths with fund-raising and training information. I meet up with my mentor, Irene and took a picture with her. Her booth was about car washes.

Irene, my mentor

The kickoff was in the auditorium and it was really cool to see all the different groups in the same place. There was a section for the marathoners, the cyclists, the hikers and the triathletes. Even the triathletes were split into a east-side and west-side group. It was nice to see everyone there and the energy in the room was really positive. I really hope we have a chance to hang out with the entire group soon.

I got to meet one of my teammates in the auditorium. Her name was Tracy and she's actually done an event with Team in Training before. She took part in a century ride which is a bicycle ride of 100 miles. She was pretty confident that it would be easy to get back in shape of the bike part of our triathlon. I wish I could share her confidence with my own ability.

Meet and Greet

Tuesday night was the meet and greet in Pasadena and I got to talk to some of my teammates, my mentor and the triathlon head coach.

Scott, the triathlon head coach

I found out some interesting things about the triathlon from Scott. I didn't know that this triathlon is really popular with celebrities. They even have a celebrity relay where a different celebrity does each leg of the race. Amanda Beard was there one year. I told him I'd be so intimidated standing next to Amanda Beard and Scott said, "They wouldn't let you compete in the same race as the celebrities."

Training sounds like it going to be really useful. He told me they're going to break down every part of my swim stroke and work on each part. I've picked up a lot of bad swim habits these past few months. Some good news though! I told him that my swim kick actually makes me go backwards and he said not to worry cause we will hardly be using our legs. I was a little surprised when he told me I would be training six days a week.

Irene, my mentor, actually did the Malibu sprint tri last year. She's going to be training with us to do the Olympic distance this year.