The Ramblin Rose Triathlon

It's been a busy six months since I last posted!  We had a jam packed summer with swim team, vacations, camping, and summer birthday celebrations.  I also started training on my own for my first triathlon.  I trained with a personal trainer group called Upgrade Lifestyle and did some swim sessions and some compu- trainer bike lessons.  The trainers and trainees in this group are mostly Ironman triathlon competitors.  So they were very inspiring to me and very helpful as I re - learned how to swim fast and ride a bike.

The Ramblin Rose Tri is for women only, which I liked.  It's made up of a 250 meter pool swim, 8 mile bike ride, and 2 mile run.  The morning of the race I got there at 6am.  I set up my bike and all my stuff in the transition area.  I met the ladies that set up near me, and everyone was so supportive and helpful.  I also saw a few of my neighbors and a few of my Weight Watchers people.  There were women of all shapes, sizes, and ages in this race.  Some were in great shape, but most were just moms like me, working towards a goal.

At packet pick up the day before, they asked you to rate your swim ability on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the best.  I picked 6, which meant that I thought I could swim the 250 m in 6 minutes.  They put us in order to swim, with the 10's going first. I quickly realized that I should've picked 9 or 10,  I had to swim around 4 or 5 people, which wasn't easy.  One lady was just floating on her back in the middle of the lane.  On the last lap two women were swimming side by side and wouldn't let me pass.  I was kinda mad to say the least.

I ran out to my bike and got on my socks, shoes, gloves, sunglasses and helmet.  Then I was off on the bike part.  It was a cool day, perfect really.  I passed a few people, and a few people passed me. There was a long hill in the middle that was hard, and after that I coasted a bit.  I had been so stressed out about the bike part, and that was the part that was actually the most fun.  I still don't like cars going around me, and I was glad that police were directing traffic throughout all of the intersections. At the end of the bike ride there was a giant hill leading up to the transition area.  I made it up without walking my bike, but then my legs felt like lead.

I parked the bike, took off the helmet and gloves and tried to start running.  It took a minute for my legs to work.  I ate an energy Gu, and that helped get me going.  It was supposed to be 2 miles, but my phone mapped 2.7, so who knows. It was a weird course through parking lots, gravel, sidewalks and road. This was not a course real runners would appreciate.  I mostly ran it, and was very glad to see the finish line.  My time was 1:09.  I was 25th out of 72 in my age group, and was 202 out of 501 overall.  I was pretty happy with my time, but I know I could do better on the swim part.

Me starting the run.  I was trying to wave :)

I decided for my next event to do the Huntersville Half Marathon in December.  It's 12 weeks away, so I think I can do it.  I'd also like to lose 12 pounds over these next 12 weeks.  Totally do -able, right? I lost 0 pounds over the summer, even with my training.  For me it's about the food and working on portion control.  Time to get serious!  Leave me a comment and tell me what your working towards this fall :)