SCHUYLKILL, REALLY?
As I sit here, still reeking of Schuylkill River after a practice swim (and after a long hot shower!)...my first in open (dark!) water, I am looking back over the last few months and wishing I had written something...anything...down about the training process. I thought about blogging about it many, many times, but I wasn't ready to discuss it, wasn't sure what I thought about it, and wasn't sure whether I was going to participate in a triathlon! And now a few months later (and only weeks before the event) I am still not sure what I think about it, whether I am ready to discuss it, or whether I am going to do the event (especially after a river swim today, but more on that later!)

So, let me go back to August of last year when I was in a spinning (cycle) class and one of the regulars in class gave a t-shirt to the instructor, and explained that she had just participated in an all-female triathlon; she raved about her experience. No, don't for a moment think that this inspired me to do one, or even planted a seed in my mind! It did not! It planted a seed in another girl's mind, unbeknownst to everyone else until earlier this year, when she started trying to recruit people to participate in this Danskin SheRox all-female triathlon with her, with a dated slated for August 2, 2009. The tri fell on her 48th birthday, and she was GOING to do it. When people first started asking me whether I would be participating, I had an easy out. I never learned to swim! I couldn't swim, so I couldn't do it. The end. Heavy sigh. That would have been so easy. So how did I get to the point where I took a swim in the Schuylkill River this morning? A scary swim in the Schuylkill at that. That chapter is for another day. Right now, I am off to sleep early because I have a mock triathlon scheduled for very early tomorrow morning (I have never looked so forward to a pool swim in my entire life!) so I need some sleep! We are swimming a 1/2 mile, biking 45 minutes, and running 3.4 miles (all components will be timed), and learning how to reduce our transition time between race legs to get the best time we possibly can. Sounds like more fun. Night night! (And about the music...no, I really am NOT a Hannah Montana fan, but this music seems to fit, and it always happens to be playing in the car when I am facing a new challenge.)