Monday, September 5, 2011

"Exercising" the Danskin Demon (Part 1 of 3)

If you recall, my first triathlon was an epic failure.  So, my incredible drive supreme stubbornness had me signing up for the next year's race.



 I just had to go back.  I trained a lot better last year, bought the wetsuit, and put a few more miles on the bike and in the pool.

I was not concerned with speed in any way and just wanted to:


My buddy Patty and I decided we would start dead last.  That meant about, oh, two thousand ladies went ahead of us.  Still, I was feeling pretty happy with our choice until we got up to the water and a fellow racer sidled up in near hysterics with a swim angel at her side.


Ah, memories.
But, before I knew it, they counted us down and we were off!!  It was super-fun swimming around all the non-swimmers.  (It suddenly made sense why so many racers wore wetsuits).  In all honesty, my swimming doggie paddle skills left a fair amount to be desired so I personally would never have made it without the suit.

We eventually rounded both buoys and as I was headed for the exit I suddenly felt a whack on my right side. There was a girl doing the sidestroke who had swum into me.  Hey, if I can do the doggie paddle, the sidestroke should be USAT sanctioned as well.

She apologized and I said a very friendly:



After all, I was having the time of my life!

I continued to swim, and suddenly, wham!  There she was again. She said "Sorry!"
I said a very friendly:



I swam on.  Suddenly, wham! Really, by this point it shouldn't have felt so "sudden" and "surprising". I started thinking she ought to consider switching sides. But my attention quickly returned to the task at hand as the exit was approaching.  Then suddenly, out of nowhere (I'm a very slow learner) WHAM! "Sorry."



I decided to speed up (duh) to get away.   I may have been was definitely among the last dozen to leave the water, but I walked out to an awesome cheering section!

There was Ann Marie, Christie, Mary and Molly:


and TriGuy, Grace, Katie, Blake and Jeff (wearing his sparkly gold jacket to be seen easily by his wife, Jenna, who was racing too)!


Patty was right behind me.  We posed for a couple of quick pics and then zoomed meandered to the transition area.  We met up after a *lightning-fast* switcheroo to prepare for the bike leg.



Seriously, if you blinked (1,000 times in a row) you totally would have missed us.

UPCOMING POSTS:
THE BIKING AND RUNNING LEGS
SPIN, FLOW, AQUA JOGGING

Oh, and don't forget you can buy your very own TriGirl shirts, mugs, totes, etc... by going to zazzle.com/triingtobeathletic* Or just click on the 'I Got Merch!"tab on the right :D

18 comments:

  1. I would totally be the girl freaking out. And uh, you have so much more patience than me for the "whack" girl. I would have lost my cool after twice.

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  2. I love it! I'm a huge fan of being an athletic supporter since I seem to severely hurt my self each time I actually try to train for something!

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  3. Oh boy! Can't wait to read about what happened with the rest of the race! :)

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  4. Haha, I might have drowned the side swimmer! Can't wait to hear about the rest :)

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  5. This was great! And I experienced the same thing with a big, hairy guy who kept swimming basically on top of me! I actually screamed at him but fell on deaf ears since his head was under water...but made me feel better.

    Love your illustrations and that you had a great cheering section!

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  6. MegO: Patience is a virtue ;) It seems I get swum onto/into/over/under in every race though so I guess it's just part of the 'adventure'!

    Mei: Athletic supporters are very important! It is such a huge boost to get cheered by someone you know :)

    Lindsay: I'll try to keep the waiting time to a minimum :D

    Texa: Yes, she definitely was annoying after a while!

    Erika: Yuck. 'Big hairy guy' is not a part of the race you would want!

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  7. I loved the survey but my favorite was the determined little tongue sticking out. Good job on going for it again, not drowning this time and definitely for not drowning Ms. Sidestroker. That totally sounds dirty and for once, it's not meant to.

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  8. Whoa! Kudos to you for doing the triathlon! I couldn't do this even in my wildest dreams.

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  9. Ha! I love that a guy wears a sparkly gold jacket for his wife!!

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  10. Vapid Vixen: LOL! Yes, not drowning myself or others was definitely a coup :D

    Nali: You would be very surprised :)

    amy: thanks!

    KSK: Yep, he loves that jacket!

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  11. I probably would have been tempted to remove that swimmers arm and beat her with it. That's just obnoxious! What strokes are allowed in triathlons? I assume no matter what stroke you are doing repeatedly whacking someone is a faux pas.

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  12. runningonwords: Well, in competitive races they just do front crawl because it is the fastest. But in novice ones like this it's really just about getting through the water for a lot of us :D But yeah, it got be pretty annoying...

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  13. Love it!! Congrats! :)

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  14. I just love your pics... and you were way too nice with side stroke gal

    And you can park your soap box on my blog anytime :0)

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  15. Jodi: Thanks!

    Lady Bren: hehe, yeah i'm nice that way, putting myself out rather than make someone else feel bad :P
    Oh, and i can usually keep my opinions to myself but the self-entitlement thing really gets my panties in an bunch! Thanks for letting me mouth off :D

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  16. That's one thing about triathlons that I don't like - swimming becomes a contact sport.

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