Our work puts on "Olympic" events each summer... football, softball, volleyball, Wii bowling, arm wrestling, archery, skeet shooting, a mini triathalon and lots more. This year I competed again in the mini-triathalon along with a few co-workers and their family. We do it at Utah Lake (I know, nasty.. haha). I arrived at 7:30am... and my stomach was in knots. The race would begin with a 200 yard swim. I am NOT a strong swimmer...I avoid it...and last year the lake was so low, we actually had to just run through the water, as it barely came to our knees at the deepest parts. This year was a whole different story, we would be required to swim the entire thing (although we would be able to touch at any point, but it would be to our necks, so walking/running wasn't an option). As we made our way out into the chilly water, the reality hit me- I'm about to try and swim this long distance (ok, maybe for a race, it's actually a pretty short distance, but remember me mentioning that I DON'T swim!?). Go!!!!!! Everyone dove into the water, me in the middle of the pack, hitting people's legs as I tried my very best to swim and look like I knew what I was doing. I probably made it about 15-20 yards and my lungs were on fire!! I had no shame, and flipped onto my back and kicked as hard as my legs could go. I did have to pause every few seconds and look back to make sure I was headed in the right direction. (floating bottles marked a large triangle for the swimming course). I was in dead last, but keeping up fairly well to the person in front of me. I finally made it to shallow water and tried to catch my breath (impossible) as I ran to my bike, speed dried my feet and threw on my shoes. (this year I bought some bungee laces for my shoes and opted to go sockless- GREAT move! I was the quickest transition by far) My speed in transition helped me jump ahead to 3rd as I started the bike. 3 miles out and 3 miles back. I sped as fast as my burning lungs allowed along the road, swallowing several bugs along the way... Oh, did I fail to mention that the bugs at the lake were SOOO thick!? There were massive clouds of them! So disgusting!
I maintained 3rd place as I came back to the starting point for the 1 mile run. And again, because I had nothing to do, but remove my helmet (the guy in 2nd had to switch shoes), he and I began the run head to head. Which actually was very nice! We ran along side each other, and really motivating each other to continue pushing. At 1/2 mile we flipped around and about 1/8 mile from the finish, he began to pull ahead. I encouraged him, and told him I'd see him at the end... I maintained a small distance between us and then the competitive side of me emerged and I thought, "why am I letting him beat me? I still have some push!".. I quickly sped my pace, the gap between us dissapearing and about 30 yards from the finish I began to sprint as fast as I could. Unfortunately he heard my huge feet beating down on him and began sprinting himself! I finished 2 seconds behind him. Dang!
My final time was 34:52. I had the goal to beat my time last year which was 32:24, but sadly, that didn't happen. It was all in the swim though, so I'm ok with that. I did my best :)
