This weekend I traveled to Lake San Antonio with my TNT training team to do a practice run of the Wildflower Triathlon course. It's still pretty early in the season (meaning that we've only been training for about 6 weeks, and before that we were all sitting on our asses indoors because it was rainy and cold during our 2 months of California winter), so we spread the events out over two days instead of doing them all on one day.
Saturday we swam in the lake (1.2 miles) and then biked the 56 mile course. Let me remind you that the lake is pretty freaking cold and although I consider myself a decent swimmer, this type of swimming seems to be getting the better of me. I struggled through this part. My heart just starts beating so fast when I jump in the cold water that I can barely swim because my heart is racing and I am gasping for air. Also, my hands and feet go numb and never seem to warm up during the course of the swim. I am hoping that all of these issues are just due to a too-small wetsuit, and might be fixable problems, but it's possible that the swim part of the race will just always be really difficult for me.
After the swim, you peel off your wetsuit and jump on your bike, wearing your wet swim shorts and top, so the first part of the bike ride was really cold. Overall, the bike course is not that hard, but there are two big hills that are unfortunately placed. The first is at mile 2, where you are still freezing from the swim and haven't really hit your stride on the bike yet. The second hill is even bigger and comes at mile 42, where you are already kinda tired. This hill is nicknamed "nasty grade" because is is fairly steep, 2 miles long, and has a fake top. So just when you think you made it to the top - surprise! - you actually have to turn right and go up another hill. But it feels pretty awesome when you get to the top. I might have shouted something non-family-safe when I finally made it up there. Just sayin'. It was that good.
What hill?
Sunday we did the run. Normally this is a 13 mile course on trails, but it had rained all night and the trails were super muddy and slick, so we did a 12 mile road course instead. I only did 10 because I am still building up my mileage, since I only had the brilliant idea to do the longer course a few weeks ago. Anyway, 10 miles was totally enough because the course basically consisted of three big hills on a 6 mile loop, which we ran twice. At first I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it, but once I warmed up, I did alright. This was the first time I have ever run 10 miles, so I was pretty pleased with myself. Also, my knees got a bit sore and I had to ice them twice when I got home, so I felt extra legit.
Chillaxing by the fire after the swim/bike day.
Anyway, all of these fascinating (or mundane, depending on your perspective) details bring me to my point: I totally did it!
I was nervous going into the weekend because I didn't quite know what to expect, but I was able to finish all the parts feeling pretty good. Crazy, right? I am NOT an athletic person, and I never thought I'd be able to run more than a few miles. So it felt pretty good to tackle the course. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not fast or graceful, but I can actually finish these distances. Take that, stupid genes!
Oh, and while I am definitely getting a kick out of the training and enjoying all the exercise, I am also doing this to raise money to fight cancer, so feel free to donate here, if you are so inclined.
Your donation makes me happy!
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