I am a Women of Steel

WELL....

 I am so happy to say I have done one more thing on my bucket list!  I did my first triathlon yesterday!  Sweet!  It was cold and wet and windy and freezing and fun!  I feel extremely grateful for the chance to do this!  We are watching our money really tight these days and would have never done this without the help I got.  My aunt Larene does this every year and offered to help my pay for it so we could do it together---

 Here we are!  Me and Larene! 

I signed up!  And then, realizing you can't just do a tri without gear and what not, I started to get a little nervous.  My sister offered to let me use her bike and so did Carolyn.  It was way more convenient to use Carolyn's.  Not only did I use it for the race, but Carolyn let me use it for training-which was super kind.  The petals were clip ins, so I looked around for a place I could rent some shoes.  Nothing.  I called around to see if I could use someones.  Nothing.  The shoes are so expensive, like almost a hundred dollars!  Yikes!  I found some for $15 at a bike store near by.  Seriously amazing deal (apparently they have been on clearance for 2 yrs waiting for me lol)!  My husband encouraged me to get my own suit as well, since I ruin things by accident somehow when I barrow things...  Jess had offered hers, but I did end up getting my own.  It was on clearance and the lady at the store I got it gave me even more money off the clearance price!  Triathlons are not only a lot of work to train for, there is quite a bit of gear to get as well!  So plan for that if you ever do one!  It came together just fine, I don't feel like I spent too much and I think I found me a new hobby!  And I never will forget all the wonderful people who supported me monetarily, verbally, and by letting me use their stuff!  It means a lot!  I really think this opportunity and my marathon are more than I deserve in our financial circumstance.

The race was great!  Like I said, it was cold!  I never, ever wear a tank top, but there I was in my tank top, freezing, waiting for the swim.  I seated myself in wrong...  Or everyone else did.  The water was wonderfully warm, but the other swimmers were dreadfully slow.  I got stuck behind one girl, and passed another in that short 300 meter swim.  In my bare feet I ran across the parking lot to my bike and got everything on and went on my way.  But my shoe was bugging me!  So I took it off and adjusted it.  My thought was "that just took 30 seconds of my time for nothing."  My shoe was still bugging me.  The bike ride was just under 13 miles.  The uphills were steep, with headwinds and rain.  The down hills were amazing and fun!  Transitioning to my running shoes was hard!  My fingers were totally numb and tieing my shoes took forever!  I did terrible on my transitions.  I didn't practice them though.  The run was good.  I started out really slow, because I couldn't feel my legs or feet and it just felt awkward.  But half way through I finally started feeling my toes and could take off!  It was a 2.9 mile run.  Triathlons are pretty challenging.  But man, my joints feel so much better after a tri than a marathon!  I might convert to save my knees!  I came in 4th place for my division.  Which sounds pretty great for my first tri, right?  Well, I am so bugged!  I came in 31.2 seconds behind number 3.  I was SO CLOSE to medaling.  So close...  Next year :)  Hopefully... I have to buy a bike! 

While I was doing my tri, the rest of my family was doing a mile race!  So we ended up with no pictures of either of us actually competing.  The boys seemed to love it, and they love the cool tech shirts even more!  They ran it with our wonderful neighbors the Smith's.  We sure love them!  Also the day before Hyrum took 4th place at his Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta!  Way to go Hyrum!