I Had to Tri It

I had been thinking about doing a triathlon, but I never quite got the motivation to sign up for one. I found my motivation in a 5 second window, while on the phone with my mother. We were discussing whether I could have their truck for the summer or not. I told them I'd be down in Florida the weekend of June 4th ane that I wanted to take it with me to the ATL for the summer. My mom and dad spend their summers up north, leaving the truck to collect dust in the garage from May to September down in Florida.

Enter the motivation: my mom says "June 4th - that's the weekend your brother is doing the triathlon."

SLUG BROTHER? Doing a triathlon? What is this nonsense coming from my mother's mouth? She must be mistaken! But no, Mother assured me that Slug Brother had been training for months for it, and he was always exhausted because of it. I tell her I believe she's got it wrong. Slug Brother can only get up before noon for surfing, fishing, or snow skiing - none of which were the swim/bike/run components of a triathlon. [I hear he gets up early for work, but I know they have to pay him a lot of money to do this.] Training for a race like this did not seem to fall into the mix of fun in Slug Brother's life. But... if my mother was correct (and she always is), then I wanted the opportunity to kick Slug Brother's behind!

I got the OK from my parents to steal the truck for the summer, and I immediately hung up with them and called Slug Brother to ask him about this triathlon. Sure enough, he and 4 of his dear friends (who are just like little brothers to me) were going to do the Dunedin Beach Triathlon. I'm in shock, but getting more excited by the minute. This is like Christmas! I can't stand the excitement! I ask him if it's OK if I do it too. He says yes, and that his goal now is to beat me. I can't believe Slug didn't call me about this before I found out from Mom. But it's all good, by the end of the conversation, Slug Brother and I were buzzing with the energy and the chance to do this together.

Well, I put myself into a Blitzkreig training regime to make sure I'd be able to finish the race. I decided to go to spin classes, since I didn't have my bike with me in Atlanta. I followed the spin classes with a run, to prep for the whole bike-to-run transition. I'd already been swimming pretty regularly, I just added an extra swim to the weekly workouts. I wasn't worried about the swim, especially since it was the first event you do. I was worried about the run. I'd be tired by that point in the race, and my knee had been giving me some trouble. But as I was training, I felt I'd be able to finish the race. I decided that would be my goal - just to finish.

Race morning arrived after a week of rain in Florida. The clear dawn on Sunday June 5th was a welcome sight. It was going to be a beautiful day. (Watch out Lizzard, you're sounding like Nicholas Sparks. Hm, I have been watching The Notebook a lot lately.) Anyhow, the drive to the beach was awesome. It was 6:30AM and I was heading over the causeway, part of a long line of cars with bikes thrown in the back. If I wasn't excited enough, seeing this really got me going! Parking was a breeze and I ended up near my brother. There were hundreds of people around. We walked up to the action as the DJ was blaring that Big-N-Rich song about saddling up your horse and riding into the city - that song makes me feel somewhat bulletproof. Good choice, Mr. DJ! I picked up my race packet, a swim cap, and got my number written on and my timing chip attached.

Slug Brother quickly found The Mack, who turned out to be the only one of his friends who actually did the triathlon with us. The other 3 yahoos bailed. (They are the true Slugs, I suppose.) Slug Brother and The Mack knew a few other random guys there, too. I met some great folks who helped me at the start. We all walked over to the swim start area together. Slug was getting a little intimidated watching the current - it seemed we'd be doing the swim against it. I told him not to worry, that it was the first leg and it would be over before we knew it. Slug turns to me and says, "My goal is to beat you." I grinned and said "knock yourself out! My goal is to FINISH!" Then I left he and The Mack, walking over to congregate with the other blue-swim capped ladies.

I hopped in the water with my age group wave, and the gun went off and we swam like hell! I spent most of the time trying not to get kicked, or at least trying not to kick anyone else. It seemed like I'd been in the water for only a few seconds when we were all running out of the water to the transition area to hop on our bikes. Mr DJ, doing a great job, was playing Queen's "Bicycle" song - a double motivation for me, as 'get on your bikes and RIDE' used to be our cue in a race to really put in our all! So off I went, riding riding riding. I was having the best time! 2 laps around the 6 mile course and I hopped off to start the run. I thought I might be tired, but I ran anyhow. I was tired. Damn, I was really tired! But I kept going. My knee started bothering me and I ran anyhow. Then my knee REALLY started yelling at me to give it a rest, so I walked. From that point, I ran and walked intermittently for the last mile of the race. I was so tired. BUT, I could see the finish, and I knew I'd make it, so I started running and didn't stop until I got there.

I ended up finishing with a time of 1:39:37, a 5th place finish in my division! Slug Brother managed to beat me, he finished in 1:29:16, and The Mack beat us both with a time of 1:20:32. The Mack was shocked at my performance. I was, too, but I was thrilled! All of us were so excited about the race. We had a great time, and we're going to do it again next year. I'm even going to do another one here in Georgia at the end of the summer. I am hooked on it. That was the most fun I've had in a long time.

As it turns out, I did even better than we thought - I started in the wrong swim wave, behind the one I was supposed to be in. My swim time and my overall race time was actually 7 minutes faster, I finished in 1:32:37. It didn't change my standings in the division, but it did put me at 1st place for the swim leg. It also meant that my brother beat me by only 3 minutes. I haven't told him this. I'm going to train like MAD and beat the Speedo off him next year!