MY FIRST TRIATHLON!

January 1st, 2009- New Year's Day I made the usual resolution to get back into shape. With my "baby" no longer a baby, I still had weight to lose and just wanted to feel better. I signed up for a Fusion class at my gym and got going. The class was 5 days a week of rotating cardio, weights, intervals, etc. I slowly began looking forward to my workout time with a friend that signed up with me. I always dreaded exercise and thought my sisters were crazy for always talking about their need to be at the gym. Well, after that 8 week fusion class, I hadn't seen the results I had hoped for, but it did give me the motivation and desire to incorporate exercise into my daily schedule! So where did I go from there? Sign up for a triathlon of course!! It sounded like a great goal and my background is swimming so that would be the easy part. I had become hopelessly addicted to my new spinning class and thought working on running would be a challenge I was up to. There were already a few gals at the gym who had signed up and encouraged me to join them. Before long my 2 sisters were on board and we had a great team to start training together!! We printed up a training schedule (from couch potatoe to triathlete in 12 weeks) and went to work.
The first time I tried to run, it wasn't a run. It was jog 30 seconds, walk a few min. and repeat. I was terrible and worried I wouldn't be able to complete the sprint distance in the triathlon of 2 miles. Each time I ran, I tried to run a little more and walk a little less. With a great team for motivation, before long I was running a whole mile without stopping. I got stronger and the knee pain and foot aches started to go away. Each time I pounded the pavement, it got just a little bit easier.
Now for the bike- I loved my spin class and our instructor is awesome. I started asking about her road bike and she actually offered to lend me her older bike to use to train to see if I wanted to invest in one myself. It was wonderful!! The transtion from spinning to road biking was harder than I thought and we dropped spinning when we really started training. We rode together on the St. Tammany Trace and did 15-20 miles each time we went out there. There was definately a learning curve with road biking and I suffered my first fall with my feet clipped into the pedals. Luckily I wasn't hurt beyond bruises that healed and I learned a lot that day.
August 2, 2009- The RocketChix Triathlon at LSU in Baton Rouge.
All of us girls got a hotel the night before because we are an hour and a half from Baton Rouge. We ate dinner the night before and helped calm each others nerves. It was great to have the team support, not to mention my 2 sisters there as well. We got up very early and were checked in and ready to set up our transitions by 6 am. 7am we lined up by the pool for our swim start and we were ready to go. My twin sister was 4th in the pool, followed by me, and my little sister right behind me with some of the fastest seed times. I was surprized at how hard it seemed and adrenalin got the best of me. Lap 3 my breathing was terrible and I struggled to catch my breath and find my rhythm. As I neared the end of the 350 M I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Out of the pool and headed for T1 I felt renewed and excited as I heard my family cheering me on and was all smiles to get ready for the bike. I made up good time on my twin getting transitioned and thank my you tube videos for showing me how to do that! (the girls arent' making fun of me now :) On my bike I was right on pace with my little sis and feeling confident. Mile marker 2 hit and ssssssssssssssss, what a FLAT TIRE!! 12 weeks of training and I never had a flat. NOT TODAY! I was devistated. Fortunately the Bike shop that sponsored the race had guys on the course who "happened" to be right behind me. Before I could even panic they were out of their truck and changing my tire for me. I could not have finished the race without them! They ended up having to change 2 tire for me as the rim was damaged and popped the new tube right after they changed it. about 8 minutes later, I was back on my bike but feeling so sad that my sisters were long gone.
Transitioning to the run was lonely as my family had heard my tire was flat and left the area to come rescue me not knowing I had been helped and was on my way. I found my legs only after struggling the first mile. I ended up right on pace with another gal in the race and we ran the last mile together. As she ran she shared her inspiring story of running for her mother who had just passed away. The second mile seemed easier with a buddy to share it with. As I neared the finish line, I felt motivated to give it my all and crossed the finish line with a great sense of accomplishment! As soon as I finished, my mind quickly flashed to what the next triathlon would be, wanting so bad to know what could be if I didn't have a flat.
Flat tire and all though, I finished in 1 hour 26 minutes, 4 minutes under my goal.


Our team was awesome and we all formed a bond that I think will continue for years to come. We are already looking forward to our next triathlon to start training for! Here are some picutres from the day!

Stacey(mytwin),susan, lindsay, me, steph(my little sis)
our team minus rebekah, she avoided all the pictures

me and stacey warming up before the race

my sister designed a logo for our team and we had tanks and banners made. it was great! here is me in the pool.

transition 1

Smiling after we fininshed!

WE DID IT!!!