TRI-Star

I did it..I didn’t stop once..I completed my FIRST TRIATHLON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, maybe it was a mini-tri.

Do you remember that just THREE WEEKS ago I decided that I was going to do the Pink Tri which I participated in today. Just three weeks ago my friend Madi decided that she was going to do it with me as well.

Three weeks of training, three weeks of wondering what we were doing..to have a GREAT sense of accomplishment.

This is what I fueled up on today: 3 gluten free pancakes and 2 bananas–1/2 eaten before and 1/2 eaten after the tri.

We were so nervous…we got lost on the way there and Madi had to call her mom at 6am–sorry Mom. But we got there and got painted up and ready to go.

We then headed over to the pool to scope out the group of participants in the longer race. I know that I said I was going to do the longer race, however, I decided that going the medium amount of 200m swim/7km bike / 2km run was a better start for someone who had never done it before.

It was good for us to check out the scene, know how they swam and transitioned. We then waited and I had to take care of some girlie stuff–why does it always come on race days. The last race that I did this happened as well..my body is out to get me!

We got all kitted up and had to take one last picture before RACE TIME!

We were ready. We had our tags on our legs and I had to try my shirt on before the race of course.

The Pink Tri is a series of Mini-Tris around Australia which are for women only and raise money for Breast Cancer. I signed up for the race for my grandmother who faught Breast Cancer and won in the early 1980s. Not only did she win, she healed the shoulder which had limited movement as a post-operative situation which was partially due to the way in which her surgery was done. This wasn’t through more surgery–it was through intensive and painful massage. My grandmother is the strongest woman I know.

We got into the pool and instead of doing laps, you went from one marker to the next–basically an ‘M’ shaped–equaling 4 laps. I am not a strong swimmer–and have only started swimming in the past three weeks. It was overwhelming starting as a group of 10. I got cut off, kicked in the face, etc. There were much slower people that I had to navigate, my arms were tired and negative thoughts started jumping in my mind.

I quieted them.

Got out of the pool ran–IN MY SWIMMING SUIT–down to my bike. Chucked on lyrca pants, socks, shoes, headband and helmet and my pink shirt from above.

The safety pins popped off…so I had to re-do my number.

I get to the place where I could mount my bike and my damn chain had fallen off. I didn’t panic, because I knew that I could fix it. I just put my hand on the chain and with the help of a organiser I was able to get going. Greasy hands for the whole bike ride and run–this is after I had tried to wash them off. I also got grease on the sweat band that I had on my arm and then rubbed it across my face–AWESOME.

I bolted. I didn’t want to leave anything behind..I want to pour my energy into the bike. I did. I kept saying to myself ‘Your grandma didn’t give up, so neither or you. Smash It. You are not tired, your legs are only warming up‘.

I got through the bike and started the run. It was hot. By that time it was about 9am and the sun was beating down and we were running on grass. Hot, steamy, grass. And it was TWO LOOPS–anyone find it hard to loop? I rounded the first loop and there the finish line was staring at my face. Grrr.

I just kept running. Repeating that ‘I can, I will, I am. Running across that finish line is gonna feel amazing, so you gotta keep going‘

I saw the finish line and bolted. I didn’t want to leave anything out of my body that I couldn’t give. Crossing the finish line was such an incredible experience. There I was, running a freaking Triathlon. This was FOR ME…for me only. For no one else, but for me 🙂

Madi was in a different group of starters so she was behind me, I cheered her on and I was so proud of her.

DONE! HAPPY! FEED ME!

The results:

• Overall time: 41:24 🙂 I was really proud of that. I had written on my hand 40…and I told Madi that I wanted to get in the low 40’s for the race today.
  • Swim (200m): 5:24
  • Bike (7km): 23:43
  • Run (2km): 12:16
• 6th out of 43 in my age group
• 24th overall out of 233 participants in my run

I am really proud of how things ended up. I say to anyone–go out and give it a TRI!

This has been such a journey for me. I am ok with the journey I am on. Madi said to me today, after we were talking about training for the huge triathlon in February, ‘Michelle, I no longer eat because I want to lose weight. I eat to fuel for my exercise‘. This is where I am focusing the rest of my journey.

What’s one thing in your life that you must get done before you die?

~Thank you for your support, it has meant so much to me. M

You have until 10am Eastern Time to enter into my Giveaway for an awesome charm trio…can’t wait to read your entry. 🙂