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.

Lake Piru Camping Trip

The camping trip was our first swim outside of the pool and a chance to socialize with our team and the much larger Westside TNT triathlon team. After work on Friday, I scrambled to get my stuff packed into my car and I went to pick Jenn from her place. We raced against the sun to reach the camp site before the sun set. Setting up a tent in the dark is not fun.

Take notice of the cool sunbeams

We arrived in camp, unsure what the parking or campsite situation was, but we were able to unload all our stuff and parked a few miles down the road and got a ride by. I was really surprised when I got back and the tent was already set up. Super impressed that Jenn was able to set it up in the dark.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed out to the swimming area on the other side of the lake. I'm going to take a quote from Nancy because I think she describes the swim in the lake perfectly:

"The open water swim was hilarious - half the participants were calm, cool, and swimming just fine, the other half (clearly including me) got about 5 strokes in, and then hung on to the buoy! Waves, murky water, more waves, made it hard to see, and hard to relax. I did get some great advice to abort the freestyle and try breaststroke or backstroke instead, which I did, but, as Coach Scott said, didn't get me very far. I would say I had a total of about 7 good strokes in at the very end of my swim. The rest, calamity. BUT, it was great to be with other people feeling just as paranoid and frustrated as I was!! Go Team!"

That's me on the right walking on the gross clay like shore

I think the only think I could add about the swim was what freaked me out was the underwater trees. Since the lake is created by the dam. There are some old trees in the water and if you swim into them, you surrounded by algae cover branches. The slimy feel all around you just makes your imagination go wild.

After the swim, we had a BRICK workout and by the time I was back in camp, I was completely pooped. Unfortunately, my idea of relaxing isn't sitting around a giant fire pit and socializing, which was pretty much what we did the entire rest of the camping trip.

We sat around the fire pit for 15 hours over 3 days

If you're wondering, yes, I took this picture because I thought cooking bell peepers over a camp fire was interesting

For dinner, the staff made us a spaghetti dinner and after that we pineapple upside down cake and s'mores. With all the extra marshmallows, we played chubby bunny, which is you stuff a marshmallow in your mouth and say chubby bunny and if it's audible you continue with another marshmallow. It gets pretty gross as you keep stuffing them in your mouth and the heat just makes them melt into one giant lump of sugar.

Waymond, the only eastsider who was willing to play Chubby Bunny

The highlight of the night for me was seeing a double rainbow, oh my god.

It's a double rainbow, all the way. Woah it's so intense.

The next morning at the crack of dawn, I just needed to get out of camp. I took my bike out and rode along the lake. The road was really broken down and it wasn't the best thing for my bike but the view of the sunrise over the lake through the clouds was well worth it.

Sunrise over Lake Piru

By the time, I got back to camp, we all got together to do our morning run practice and I headed home right ahead, skipping breakfast.