finish strong

well....i did it! i finished my first full tri and i beat my goal by 1 minute! i must have had a lot of people praying for me because i didn't get nervous at all. i was more excited than anything. it was so amazing to work so hard for something and then see it all pay off. the tri actually ended up being easier than what i thought it would be. i was able to do the whole thing without stopping or walking once. for those of you who aren't familiar with how tri's work, the order is swim, bike, run. we had to swim for 1/2 a mile, run to the transition area, put your socks, shoes, helmet, etc. on and then head off on a 12 mile bike jaunt, then rack your bike at the transition area and finish with a 3 mile run. my exact times in each area were: 00:19:42 for the swim, 00:47:26 for the bike, and 00:30:39 for the run. and the total for my transition times were 00:06:10. so the total for my tri including everything was exactly 01:44:00!!! my goal was to do it under 2 hours so i was more than pleased:-) it was awesome too because my parents got to be there for the race. when i crossed the finish line i started bawling like a baby:-) there's just something so neat about accomplishing something like that. i can't wait for my next one!! enjoy the pics!

just minutes before my "wave" left

mom and i-our first mother's day together in 7 years!

next in line to go

just finished swimming, running to the transition area to get on my bike

starting the bike portion

just crossed the finish line....trying not to cry :-)

hugging my tri coach, amy

team vortex rocks!

larissa, tammie, me and mom after the race-we are happy!!

danskin triathlon here i come!

so i'm doing my first FULL tri this sunday on mother's day. i am super pumped about it. i started training in feb for this tri and then because of my unexpected surgery in march, i had to take about 5 weeks off. that threw me for a loop and i was really nervous about the fact that i might not be ready for when the tri came. well now it's almost here...only 3 more days until i see if i have what it takes. i have to admit that i've really pushed myself over the last 3 weeks and it's really paid off. i feel even better than i did before my surgery. i'll be back to post pics of the race (in my lovely spandex outfit) and give you the stats. say a prayer for me if you remember!! since no post is complete with out a picture, here's a picture from my first tri back in '07 kissing my medal :-)