Tri-ing Something New
Have you ever experienced the high of having just registered for a race? You know, when all you see before you are possibilities? You’ll be carried by the cheers of thousands of adoring strangers to a new PR. You’ll be greeted at the finish by handsome firemen bearing Gatorade. You’ll receive three successive marriage proposals, and your finisher’s photo will be so amazing that Runner’s World will beg to use it for their next cover…
Oh, am I the only one that does that?
Okay then, have you ever experienced that feeling of complete dread and desperate wish to unclick ‘Submit’? That sinking feeling that if you bail now, you’ll have to live with public shame and the loss of that non-refundable $102.36 entry fee? (Including the super-annoying $5.36 “online fee”. Oh sure, it’s really only for my convenience that you don’t want me to snail mail you a handwritten check…)
Anyway, dread is about what I’m feeling right now, having just signed up for this:
That’s right, baby. May 5th. It’ll just be me, some open water, an old mountain bike with commuter tires and a bent pedal, and my
floppy foot.
I blame Jeanine. Or the foot. Or both.
Basically, thanks to the foot, I ended up in spin class with Jeanine.
Thanks to Jeanine, I ended up learning to swim.
Thanks to the “swimmer’s high” I let myself get talked into doing a triathlon.
I’m sure you understand my panic.
Okay, I’ll admit, this isn’t exactly an Ironman. Here’s the rundown:
Swim: 300 meters
Bike: 11.2 miles
Run: 2 miles
Jeanine swore up, down, and sideways that I could wade the entire swim and do the bike on a Big Wheel and still not finish last. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve never swam in open water, all but two of my bike rides this YEAR have been on a stationary spin bike (which I have still come perilously close to falling off of), and the most miles I’ve managed to run in a single week since October is…drum roll please…10.
Needless to say, this blog won’t be changing to “triathlonfiesta” anytime soon. But, I do think I’ve spent enough time mourning my lost 50-mile weeks. (You guys all remember that I ran 50.2 miles that one week, right? Right??)
Anyway, I figure I have two choices:
- Sit around drinking beer, moping, and getting “fluffy”. (Okay, not an entirely unattractive option.)
- Give myself a solid slap upside the head and snap out of it!
Hint: This is one of those really easy multiple choice tests where the “right” answer is totally obvious.
If I can run 10 miles in a week, I can run 2 on May 5th.
If I can swim 2000 meters in the pool (a recent record!), I can swim 300 in a very shallow lake.
And if I can make it through 45 minutes of butt-kicking spin at 6am with an instructor pounding double espressos and announcing his “easy gear” is 15, well then gosh dangit, I can make it 11.2 miles…even if my bike IS the adult equivalent of a Big Wheel.
Oh, and I can manage to write a few sentences now and then about how it’s going. You know, just in case $102.36 isn’t sufficient motivation.
PS – I promise I’ll keep the cheesy “tri” jokes to a minimum. Or at least…I’ll tri!
PPS – Sorry. I know. That was painful.
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