Back in March, we went to see the butterflies at Fredrick Meijer Gardens with our college friends Brad, Meg and their adorable daughter Isabelle. Meg and Brad both rode their pedal bikes with Mark for the March of Dimes Bikers For Babies event two years ago. Meg and Mark were talking about doing a sprint triathlon (500 meter swim, 14.8 mile bike ride, 5k (3.1 mile) run) and Mark was trying to convince Meg to do the Millenium Park Triathlon with him on Aug 3. While they were talking I impulsively said that I would do it too. They both looked at me with a surprised expression because I don't swim, never rode a road bike and couldn't run. We said our good-byes and they headed back to Kalamazoo. I kept thinking about doing the Sprint Tri. That night Meg and I were on Facebook chatting about signing up. After looking at the course maps I realized that I could do it. I've been to the beach a lot, Mark has biked on the course and I've been on the running course before too. I felt like I could be in control (which I need to do) of this race. So I impulsively signed up with Meg and got to work. I was the most scared of the run. I ran a 10k (6.2 miles) 6 years ago and haven't run much since then. I downloaded the Couch to 5k app on my phone. I started getting up early and walk/ran on the treadmill in our basement or went to the gym. By May, I could run almost 3 miles without stopping.
Once summer vacation started, I could focus on training. I downloaded a training schedule for Tri-newbies and got to work. I would get up at 6 am and ride my mountain bike or go for a run. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed those early mornings workouts. I was always the girl who made fun of my friends for working out early and now I understood why they did it. I felt like the World was all mine. It was so peaceful and calm.
Sometimes, I would run at night and Mark would push the kids in the jogging stroller. I was able to swim at Millennium Park which was great. My wonderful friend Delia has loaned me her road bike so that I can be more official and ride faster during the race. My mom would watch the kids so I could train or Mark and I could go together. We also had neighbors and Mark's parents help with the kids. Mark has been an amazing support system for me. He's done a lot of triathlons and is a great coach (even though there were plenty of times I wasn't very nice to him) he never gave up on me.
So here I sit the night before the eve of my first Tri. I did a one mile run tonight (in 9:58 min.-I used to run 12 min. Miles) and started thinking that it was my last run before the big day. I've never trained so much for something before and I am proud of myself for sticking with it. I've done ALOT of positive self talk and visualizing myself crossing the finish line. I am excited for Saturday and can't wait to see what happens! My goal is to swim in 20 min (I'm slow and never learned how to do the front crawl so instead I do whatever it takes to get through the water- side stroke, breast stroke, a modified front crawl). I can bike it in under 1 hour and I hope to do the run in 30 minutes. I've practiced the transitions and did a mini-Tri training with Mark so I've got the feel for how it goes. I want my overall time to be under 2 hours. I think I should be able to do it. Wish me luck and please say a few prayers for me on Saturday morning at 8:12 (my official starting time)!
On a side note, Meg isn't able to do the Tri because she hurt her back. I'm so bummed and feel terrible for her. I'll be working extra hard for her on Saturday. Since she can't do it, Mark is taking her place and is super excited to do the Tri. He's really good (and fast) and hopes to place in his age group (which he's done before).
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