My first ever blog attempt about my first ever triathlon

When I was young, I fought my parents tooth and nail when they tried putting me into any sport or activity that was remotely "girly." I cried my way out of tap dancing, and laughed at cheerleading. The only part of me that even celebrated being a girl were my feet--I played baseball in my first pair of heels from Payless, and I still have the scar on my knee to prove it. I played soccer from second grade through my freshman year of highschool, but then was forced to quit to maintain the C average I was holding and a part-time job. I played softball for a few years, flag football at recess, and loved stepping into a random baseball game at the park to show off my good arm.

When I was 19 I was introduced to the world of weight lifting,"cardio," protein, creatine, and a clean diet. I was in the gym for 2.5 hours a day for months. I ended up with a miniscus tear in my right knee and an obsession with being active everyday. I started doing yoga and spinning classes, and Tae Bo in my basement at my parent's house (I stopped whenever someone came down to do laundry because I looked ridiculous). After years, about 5 of them, I became tired of the goaless and relentless hours spent in the gym. Yes, I wanted to stay in shape and of course lose the few pounds turning 21 had given me, but I felt like something was missing. I stepped into the gym everyday with a plan, but that plan was giving me no fulfillment-no sense of accomplishment. I was a full-blown fulltime smoker for 10 years, so I never really got into running or anything that required me to be out of breath for long. For the health freak that I was, I knew the habit was a little contradictory to everything I was doing, but I didn't care.

Then I moved to Chicago when I was 23. I didn't have a gym membership for the first year I lived here, but I tried what I could to stay active, which mostly consisted of rollarblading 6 miles a day in the summer and "running" (run, walk, run, walk, run....then try to catch my breath). Then I heard about the Shamrock Shuffle in March of 2007, an annual 10K that like 30,000 people run at the end of March, so I signed up, still smoking and all. I trained here and there...I really didn't know what I was doing. Race day arrived, and I ran the 5 miles in an hour, and felt like crap afterwards, but hell, I LOVED the feeling of crossing the finish line. I was addicted to racing from that day forward. I didn't sign up for anymore races that year, but it was after that race that I found out my best friend Laura was training for the Subaru Series all women sprint triathlon in Naperville . I thought she was freakin' nuts, but I became intrigued. I knew I could not run long distances, so this event would let me dabble in three different sports. I let the thought go until the end of 2007 when Laura said she would be training for it again, and it was then that I agreed to do it as well--what the hell. I didn't own a bike, a bathingsuit that wouldn't fall off if I even moved from my back to my stomach on my beach chair, and I certainly did not own a pair of shoes that were even close to being designated as my "running only" shoes. I just knew I wanted to do this, but at the time, didn't know why. I just knew I wanted to feel the rush of crossing a finish line, and this would bring me there with the "Are you nuts?" factor attached.

I met Chad in November of 2007. He was getting ready to sign up for Ironman and had just lost over 100 pounds from gastric bypass surgery. I was just dabbling in the triathlon waters, and he was fully immersed. We are still the best of friends today, but he saw some fire inside of me when we first met that I guess I never saw...until now (I will expand later). From then on, he coached me on triathon jargon and introduced me to the world of swimming, biking, running, heart rate monitoring, energy gels, early morning workouts, and obsessively tracking my workouts on excel. I bought several triathlon books and logged onto sites such as active.com and beginnertriathlete.com--I was obsessed with learning as much as possible, but at this point had yet to sign up for my first tri, choose a training plan, or quit smoking.

January 1st, 2008 arrived, and I knew that base training was beginning on January 7th, and my main training for the June 22 Naperville sprint that I was to sign up for in February was going to begin in March. I had to do something about my smoking. I promised myself and my father that I would quit. I am happy to say that I have been COMPLETELY smoke free for 1 year, 1 month, and 10 days. Let's just say that when base training began, it did not take long for me to realize why I had quit smoking, and also how very long this journey to cardiovascular endurance would take. I look back in my binder of past training plans and journals, and realize that when I first began, I could only run for seven minutes...SEVEN...without stopping. Swimming 25 yards felt like someone was choking me, and bike for 45 minutes felt like an eternity. Today, I can swim 1.5 miles straight, run 6 miles (I am sure I am capable of more, just haven't tried YET), and bike for 60 miles straight (about 3 hours).

I completed my base training, and March rolled around very quick. I barely remember training, but I do remember laughing and ignoring much of the advice my friend Chad gave me. Who needs an expensive bike when I could purchase a hybrid? Who needed salt tabs and wet suits? Who needed to take it slow and steady? Who needed more than one pair of goggles? Not this gal. Yes, I was a beginner, and no I did not need the best of the best because what IF I hated the sport? What if after June 22nd I wanted to quit and say "Eff that!"? I didn't want to spend needless money on at the time what was needless equipment. I bought enough to get me by. I pushed myself a little too far too early, and burned out quickly. I cried, I wondered what I was doing and why many times, but I also remember NOT giving it my all. I remember training at times for the sake of training because I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I certainly could not answer the question many people ask--"Why?" Since I didn't know why, I just kind of plugged along. I signed up for the Soldier Field 10 miler in May after getting really comfortable running, but was forced to sell my slot with a IT Band and hip injury that threw me into physical therapy for a couple of months ( I am still paying that damn bill). I had to keep my focus for the year--my goal was to become a triathlete, not complete at 10 mile run. My left hip was significantly higher than my right hip since my IT band and my muscles on the left side were so tight and wadded up into a ball under my pelvis. Goodstuff. I spent months strengthening my core, hips, and glutes, and suffered many bruise creating massages by my therapist. Not my idea of a great massage.

June 22nd, race day, arrived and I was PUMPED! I have pictures of my things set up the night before on my bedroom floor so I didn't forget anything. I wanted to save this journey forever. My dad and step-mom woke up early with me as I prepared for my long morning. We got to Naperville pretty early--around 5:15am-- so I could get the best possible spot in T1 as possible-which I did. Right on the end where I didn't have to even look twice in the sea of bikes for my clearly "This is my first triathlon" hybrid. I was to go off around 9:48 am in my wave of yellow caps (condom heads as someone I know refers to us as), however a storm rolled in, killing all the addrenaline I had. The race was delayed a full hour until the weather cleared, but my nerves kept building. Finally it was my turn to go. I knew that the swim was going to be difficult, but not as diffcult as it actually was. The swim was in a lake fed pool. I could not see one damn thing in front of my face. It was horrible. I only trained in a pool since the winter did not allow me to hop into Lake Michigan. I mostly walked the swim since it was a beach-style pool, and in the parts where I could not touch I doggy-paddled and did any stroke that allowed me to keep my head above water. My goggles kept fogging up, and I wondered many times to myself, "Can I really do this?" Surprisingly, the half mile only took me 15:59 minutes. Upon getting out of the water, I began running to T1. It was at that point that I said to myself "What the f*ck am I doing this for?!" That journey to T1 was my wake up call--train harder next time! I got to my bike and it took me 6:15 minutes to transition to getting on my bike and out on the road. The bike wasn't so bad. I almost used it, though, as my time to recollect when I should have been pushing it. One girl was spotted laying on the ground having passed out while riding her bike. She fell face first and scraped her entire front side on the way down--a reminder of what can go wrong. I finished the 14 mile bike ride in 50 minutes--a little slow! I returned to T2, and it took me 2:15 minutes to refuel and get on the road to run the LONGEST 3 miles of my life. I felt like the three miles took forever, but I NEVER walked once. Women were yelling "Good job, keep going!" and "You can do it," and "You ARE doing it!" This is what makes this my favorite race. The support is amazing. I finished the run in 29 minutes...much quicker than what I thought I was going to considering how very tired I was. I finished the race in 1 hour and 44 minutes, and in the top 48% of all of the racers. I was so happy after crossing the finish line that I began crying. I heard the song "Crazy" by Knarles Barkley, and I said to myself, "Yes you are crazy." But I did it. I met my family and friends at the finish line after stuffing my face with a banana, a bagel, and some water and gatorade, and cried in their arms. I NEVER thought I was capable of finishing something like this. If I looked back to the days when I first started working out, I NEVER would have guessed that I would be a triathlete.

From that day, the addiction began, and I fell in love.