Just Do It

I stopped using this after some technical malfunctions, but today is a good day to start doing it again, and maybe even figuring out some of the tricks. :)

Today I participated in a triatholon with my Dad and sister. The idea started about 8 months ago when Kevin told me he wanted to do one. I scoffed and thought he was insane. Why would anyone do that of their own free will? I hated doing the fun run in junior high. Well a few months later I found myself very pregnant and reading a magazine article in the doctor's office about fun things to do this summer. It mentioned the Share-A-Smile triatholon. I thought it my hormone induced craziness that it would be a fun thing to do as a family. They had a novice level that seemed challenging but not too grueling. I sent an e-mail out to my family asking them to join me, and I signed myself up that day so that I couldn't back out. My dad quickly signed on and after a little coercing Taryn agreed as well. Dad and Kevin thought the novice level was too easy, and convinced us to do the full race. I started to get a little nervous. Fast forward three months, I now had a brand new baby and a race deadline looming. The nerves grew worse. I started slowly training but we were soon engrossed in a move to my parent's house along with the rest of our busy lives, but I wouldn't let anyone back out. I was still thinking, "How bad could this really be?"
About 2 months before the race I started really trying to work out, and my first time on the treadmill I could barely do 2/10ths of a mile! And when we went swimming as a family and my mom, who was a lifeguard, tried to show us what to do, I started having elaborate day dreams about concoting a story in order to get our entry fees refunded.
I just kept trying to work out and it slowly became easier and I could go longer. I was so excited the day I ran 2 miles, even when I had to take a break. But I still wanted to get out of doing the race. I asked Taryn on my birthday, if we could try and get out of it, and she said no! We had paid our money and we were going to do this. My dad tried to give his spot to one of the boys and when I told Taryn he was weasling out, she called him and told him he was doing it too.
We finally tested our bikes the day before and we laughed as realized how unprepared we might be. But we were going to finish this no matter what and we kept saying, that at the very least we weren't going to actually die doing it. That was about the extent of our confidence.

The night before Taryn and I had a terrible time and didn't get much sleep. We kept saying how stupid this was that we were actually going to do this. But we grabbed our energy bars and Gatorade and pile into the truck before the sun was up. Taryn had a terrible headache, and I kept unrolling the window because I thought I was going to throw up. In the parking lot, it looked like we were among a bunch of pros. We wheeled our bikes over to the racks and I couldn't even lift my bike on! But we were here and we were going to do this!