"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