Triathlon

This is a journaly post, so Choose Your Own Adventure: (anyone else love those books growing up?)
To see pics, just scroll down.
To know why I did this triathlon, continue reading.

Memory 1:
I was young... maybe 7, 8, 9 years old? It was the last day of my swimming lessons at Mission pool and to be tested and "pass" our class, we had to swim from one end of the pool to the other and back, freestyle, one at a time. I remember kind of doing it, but then half way back I stopped and sputtered and threw up all the water on the side of the pool that I had swallowed on the first half. I'm pretty sure I failed those swimming lessons. I just wasn't coordinated enough to get the breathing and other motions lined up.

Memory 2:
Fast forward to the first day of Girl's Camp and I'm now an awkward 12 year old girl, standing among many other awkward 12 year old girls, listening to instructions for all the newbies. "All first year girls have to pass a swim test before they can play in the water this week." Crap. My heart sank. All I had to do was swim out around the dock and back, but I was terrified.

So there I stood in my swim suit, knee-deep in the lake water, just waiting to get up the guts to take the test as all the other girls passed me. I played the "Oh burr, the water's so cold, I think I'll go in slow" card, and before I knew it, all the girls had passed and were swimming and playing. The lady with the clipboard who was keeping track of swim test passers left and I was still dry, thigh-high in the water now. I never did pass that stupid test all 6 years I was there.

Memory 3:
I was maybe 14? 15? And I was with my friends Katie and Emily at their family reunion. We were swimming and all I remember is that they wanted to swim out to a dock, or to another beach or something, and I couldn't do it! I had to make sure I was touching the whole time, or had a floating toy to hold on to.

Memory 4:
A glob of memories of swimming through out my teens and twenties, having to plug my nose before going under water, not being able to dive, and being terribly afraid of the deep end of the pool. By now I have just accepted that I don't swim and I don't love the water.

Fast forward to February 20011 when my sister Erin calls. The conversation went something like this:

Erin: "So I have an idea of something fun that all us sisters can do together"

Kristi: "Ok - sounds good! What are you thinking? (thinking she would say something like a cruise... a girl's weekend somewhere warm... etc).

Erin: Let's all do a triathlon together!

Kristi: I laughed out loud. This is not my idea of "fun" to do with my sisters. "You're crazy. You realize I don't swim right? At all. As in I failed swimming lesson as a child."

Erin tried to reassure me but I wasn't convinced at all.
I wrote off the idea and wasn't planning on doing it, but it kept bugging me.

Finally one night I was rocking Lincoln and just thinking. I remember the following thought process:

My sister is crazy. But that would actually be really cool to be able to say I've done a triathlon. But there's no way. I really don't want to do it. But why? I like doing 5 k's. And Ben can train me on cycling. It sounds so intimidating. I feel nervous right now just even thinking about it. I feel panicked right now. But why? Fear. But why? Fear of making a fool out of myself. Fear of the water. Fear of drowning? I can't let fear hold me back. I don't want to be afraid. I can't always operate out of fear. I need to overcome this. Why not learn how to swim? I can't not do this just because of fear. Fear is the opposite of faith.

So I decided right then that I would do the triathlon, regardless of my fears. Gulp.

Luckily I have a pass to 24 hour fitness where there is a pool. I tried a couple times to go and just discretely observe other swimmers as I was using the kick board. Then as those swimmers vacated and I was positive I was all by myself, I tried what they were doing, bit by bit.

I remember after a couple times of doing this, I actually swam from one end to the other without stopping (only a 25 yard pool) and I immediately turned around, stood in the water, threw my arms in the air (kind of like Michael Phelps would :-) and jumped up and down in the water with the biggest smile and tearing up I actually yelled, "I did it!". I'm pretty sure I was the only one there... I hope. :-)

Then one Sunday during the Relief Society Good News Minute I decided to share the fact that my sister pressured me into doing a traithlon but that I had no idea how to swim. And immediately after I said that, a girl piped up from across the room, "I'll teach you!" I was astounded. "Seriously? You will? That would be GREAT!"

Luckily, this girl who offered to help (Ashley) goes to the same gym as me so that worked out well. She met with me for about a month a couple times a week teaching me technique and motivating me. I was so grateful to have someone willing to spend their time in helping me learn something so basic. It was humbling to go every time and talk to the swimmers around us as they asked about what we were doing. And it was amazing how many people offered help and advice as I opened up and talked to other swimmers.

Anyway, I am still not a great swimmer. I am slow and still have to rest between laps and do the back stroke. But bottom line? I CAN SWIM! I don't have to plug my nose. I still have an aversion to deep water, but it's not nearly as bad as it was a few months ago.

The funny thing is Erin and Mindy ended up not being able to travel down here for the triathlon and Andy has chosen to do another tri. So I was on my own for this one, but I still wanted to follow through because this was bigger for me than just doing a triathlon. It was proving to myself that I can learn something new and overcome my fears.


So now for the triathlon details...

The triathlon was last weekend - Women of Steel tri in American Fork. It's women only and caps off at 1000, there were about 750 who actually participated.

It consisted of a 300 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run.

My goal was sub 2 hours and my final time was 1 hr 39 min - whohoo!


That morning I woke up at 5:30. I packed the night before and was ready to go. Left for AF at 6:15.

6:30 Arrived. set up my transition area and got body marked. Ate a banana, drank a coconut water. Checked out the pool one more time.

It was warm by now and not a cloud was in the sky (this is amazing because this was the only day out of the week that it didn't rain). Had it rained, they would have changed it to a duathalon (run, bike, run) and I would have been super disappointed.

7:50 athletes piled into the pool area and 8 am swim portion started.

It was 8:53 by the time I entered the pool, and there were still 1/4 of the women left.

The swim was great - I wasn't nervous at all, until about 5 second before hitting the water. They had women entering the water every 10 seconds, which was great. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be.

Coming out of the swim, running to transition. My legs were jello here and transition felt way too short.

Coming out of transition, ready to mount for the biking portion. I ate (more like gagged down) my goo as soon as I got on the bike. I could really feel this kick in - beautiful!

Logan entertained himself with sticks and his blue bike that he brought along.

I don't know if this was as I was going by to start the second bike loop, or if I was done at this point.
The bike portion was awesome. By far my strongest leg of the tri. The bike loop was uphill the first half and a gentle downhill the second half, and the loop was 6 mi long so we did two loops total.
My average speed uphill was about 13 mph and down hill was about 22, and got up to 28. I was praying the whole time to (1) not flat because stopping to repair a flat would put my time over 2 hours and (2) to not wreck. :-)

Walking into the transition area to get ready for the run. Legs were super jello at this point.
Stopped for a fast bathroom break in transition and took off.
As soon as I started running my legs were fine, but my left side cramped up and lasted the entire 5 k. I prayed at the beginning of the run that it would go away. It didn't. Finally I adjusted my prayer to ask that I would be able to deal with it and run well anyway. And that's what happened. Taking the advice of a returning athlete, I took a slow pace for recovery the first mile (uphill) and then pushed hard the last two miles (flat and downhill).


This is while they were waiting for me at the finish line. I'm sure that cone was supposed to be somewhere important. Oh well. :-)

Sprint to the finish line (well it felt like a sprint... it probably looked like a slow jog though)

The finish line. Once again tears welled up as I crossed. This was the proudest I've been of myself in a while.


My cheering section. Dave and Jera were in town that weekend, so Jera came and helped Ben with the boys and cheered me on. It made a world of difference knowing I had someone there pulling for me.

Robin Knowlton (Andy's sister-in-law) and me afterwards.

This was my transition area afterward. A mess. And you can't see it, but a trick is to tie a balloon to the pole so you can locate your place quickly during each transition phase.

This tri was super fun and well organized. And even more, it sounds silly, but this really was a huge obstacle for me to overcome and I did it. I think I'm hooked!

Results:
Swim portion: 10:28
Trasition #1: 3:40 (kinda slow)
Bike: 47:53
Transition #2: 2:44
Run: 34:52

Total time 1:39:40 - 56th place in division out of 89. Not too bad.

Lessons learned?
It's never too late to overcome fears.
Sometimes it pays to open your mouth and talk. You never know when someone is willing to help.
Faith is stronger than fear.
Triathlon only has one "a" (a.k.a., NOT triathAlon)
Confidence comes in doing. Acting. Practicing.
Prayers are answered, over and over.
Power Bar Gels are disgusting.
I love cycling.